The Forgotten Heart
by The-Lesser-of-two-Goods
Summary: When a prep school girl moves to Destiny Islands and a huge storm arrives, Sora and his gang take her along to stop a new growing evil, but why are the Heartless after her? Will she learn to look past the exterior and discover the heart within? SxK OCxRxN
1. The New Target

CHAPTER ONE:

The New Target

-NOTE-

Hey, this is my first fanfiction story on this account! I'm very excited to continue with this story, and I'm interested in where it will take me. Please bear with me for the first chapter, things go by slowly. Just live on the fact that a new character is introduced and a swarm of Heartless appears. I swear that the story will get better. Please read and review!

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, Charlie the Unicorn would be a major character in the plotline. Obviously, I don't.

-/NOTE-

_Years, huh,_ Sienna thought, twirling a lock of curly, auburn hair around her slender fingers as she looked outside her window. The sky was clear and the sun was bright. _We'll be living here for years._ She shook it off quickly, trying not to think about their new house, unpacking her last box into her room. Looking up, she surveyed the posters on her wall, the lamp on her nightstand, the television, desk, dresser, and clothes in her closet. Everything was hers, but the room felt foreign. Everything was hers, but nothing was _hers_.

Slowly, her eyes drifted to her full-length mirror, sitting idly against her green wall (barf green, of all colors), and surveyed herself. She was 5'6", with eyes such a mixed hazel that she wasn't even sure what colors they were made out of. She had a diamond-shaped face, and her short, wavy platinum blond hair seemed to shape it the right way. Pink, thick-rimmed glasses hid her face, and her usual Hollister shirt and frayed jeans adorned her body.

She was so out-of-place at sunny, beautiful Destiny Islands.

_Crash_.

Sienna jumped and looked out her window. "A storm?" she murmured to herself, not quite understanding. Only seconds before, she had looked out of her large window to see the bright, orange sun being sucked in by the horizon, and now it was shaded by clouds.

"Wait," Sienna said to herself. _Hilarious_, she thought, _it's not like I'm going anywhere but I tell myself to wait anyway_. Finally managing to focus her mind back on the situation at hand, she noticed that the clouds didn't look right. They weren't a pearly white, gray, or even black. No, they had an unseemly purplish sheen to them, making them look like something out of a Tim Burton film or a Dr. Seuss book, both of which Sienna had familiarized herself with. "I'm sure it's nothing."

Still, she couldn't resist the urge to open her window to smell the air, make sure that it was as clean as it seemed the first second they had landed on the island, because the clouds didn't seem like a positive sign of that. Before she could open her screen, she heard an odd shout from outside.

"I told you the king was serious," the boy shouted from outside, "he still needs us! So hurry _up_!"

"A king?" Sienna asked herself, and blinked her hazel eyes curiously. She closed the window almost mechanically, and bolted for the door. The girl had no specific reason for what she was doing, but she knew that she was curious and refused to go through her life in Destiny Islands without making any friends. This boy and whoever he was calling to could be perfect.

Sienna took her time getting out of the house; she still hadn't memorized the twists and turns of the hallways. When she finally made her way out the door and towards the scenery that her window looked over, she saw three figures making their way into tiny boats at the shore.

"Hey, wait!" Sienna called out to them, almost tripping over tufts of grass. Finally, the grass had shifted into sand, and she was running on the beach, towards the shore. "_Wait_!" Sienna screamed again.

Finally, the three of them looked back and stopped rowing. All of them let the rising tide take them to shore, and they stepped out of their boats, looking right at her. Two of them were boys and one was a girl, none of which Sienna could make out in the odd, purplish light, that she realized was coming from the sky, and not the clouds.

"What's going on?" Sienna asked more quietly now.

"What?" The shorter of the two boys called out, obviously unable to hear her over the raging storm.

"I said, _what's going on?!_" Sienna cried out over the wind.

"It doesn't matter to you now," the shorter boy called out again, "just go back into your house, we're going to take care of everything."

Sienna paused, but then screamed, suddenly finding all of the rage that she had kept bottled up inside of her when she found out that she was moving from her hometown to Destiny Islands, "It does matter to me, because apparently this place is my new home and if this happens frequently, I want to know exactly what it's like! So give it up, are there always freakish purple storms here on Deadbeat Islands or is the island being sucked up by some dark force?"

Of course, Sienna was joking, but she would have never comprehended or defined the exchanged looks of worry between the three of them.

"Sora, I think we should take her," the girl said. Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning, and the thunder grew louder, "the king said there was another princess. We could use all the help we can get to find her," she paused, "remember, Riku didn't know he was a keyblade wielder before and he learned how to fight just fine when we were first taken away."

Suddenly, everything was pig latin to Sienna, a language that she never understood. "Sora, I think you better make a decision soon," the taller of the two boys recommended, his voice noticeably deeper and older than the other's, "because we've got to get to the gummi ship _now_."

"She can't--" Suddenly, Sora and the other two were gaping at Sienna. Confused, she turned around as she stood on the shore to the big island, and fell over at the sight of the black creature in front of her. It looked almost like a shadow. It had no real fingers, but its arms extended into pointed claws, and it had crunched-up rabbit-like ears poking out of the sides of its head. With a huge contrast, shining, beady yellow eyes poked out of its face, and it was rushing towards Sienna.

If it wasn't freaking her out so much, it would have been cute.

"Wh-_what_?!" Sienna asked, backing up, not even caring for once in her life what the wind was doing to her hair and the sand that was getting in her nails as she crawled backwards in the sand.

"_Fire_!" The younger boy called from behind her. In a burst of flame, the dark creature collapsed in on itself. Odd items were left where it disappeared, and Sienna looked back over at the three. Sora was carrying some odd, long object that was shaped curiously like a key, and he put it back to his side, it was originally pointing at where the creature had been standing.

Not missing a beat this time, Sienna looked back in front of her. Surely enough, a mass of these black creatures were creating an ocean separate from the one that the other three were about to sail off into, a separate one, heading straight for Sienna.

"They want her for something," the older one called, as Sienna finally managed to stumble back on her feet and run towards the three, the only ones who seemed to have any defense against these _things_. Sienna didn't know what was going on and why, but she did know that there was no way in hell she was staying at Destiny Islands after that. There was no way her parents could make her. "She's got to come with us."

"Fine then!" The younger boy shouted again, and Sienna felt a tug at her polo collar, being pulled into the girl's boat. The contrast of the rocking ocean was strong in comparison to the slightly-less-than-sturdy sand, but it was a good contrast; something told Sienna that those things couldn't swim.

"Watch the shirt," Sienna murmured, "it's worth more than you're whole outfit." The girl she was sitting in the boat with, who she noticed had medium-length crimson hair and a soft, but scowling face. Suddenly, Sienna blushed, embarrassed. She knew what she cared about, which was her clothing and her image, she could not deny that, but she also could not deny that these three probably saved her life and she was treating them like shit.

"It looks like the tide's changing," the older boy called out to their right in the ocean, they were now half way to a small island north of them. She could see the taller one better as well; he had long, silvery hair and seafoam green eyes, staring focused and bravely forward. He was wearing clothes that seemed somehow too small for him. "we should make it to the ship in time."

"Yeah," the younger boy, Sora, called back. He was definitely an anomaly in his looks; his brown hair spiked up in odd directions, paired by uncharacteristic electric blue eyes. His face had small laugh lines on him, which comforted Sienna slightly; at least someone she had been sailing with wasn't totally serious, although he did seem pretty prude in that situation.

"I'm Kairi," the girl said softly in the boat, not trying to shake hands with Sienna as she had put all of her energy into rowing her small boat, which was almost all the way to the tiny island. "That's Sora, and the tall one's Riku. We're going to take you with us on our Gummi Ship and explain everything to you." Kairi paused, "the Heartless want you for something."

"The Heartless?" Sienna asked, confused, "Is that, like, what just was trying to attack me?" She gulped and gripped the edge of the boat, staring at the island which they had just hit.

Kairi nodded. "It's exactly what was just trying to attack you." She quieted quickly and grabbed her hand and helped her onto shore.

Almost immediately, more of the things called the Heartless had appeared out of nothing, seemingly coming out of the ground. An object much like the giant key Sora had been holding had appeared in Kairi's hand, but hers wasn't quite as plain as Sora's silver and gold one was. Hers was blue at the handle, and the top part of it was full of flowers. A chain coming off of it, one she hadn't noticed in Sora's, had something that looked like a paopu fruit, one she saw all over on Destiny Islands, but it looked plastic.

I looked over at Riku. He, too, had a giant key, but his was much odder than the other two. The long stem of it looked more like a sword than an actual key shaft, and the top locking part was a wing. The handle was even half-wing and half the sword-like part's handle. Sienna found herself staring at it for too long, before she was warned by Sora.

"Look in front of you!" Sora shouted.

Sienna looked up, and screamed. The Heartless were charging at her again, but Sora and Kairi were already swiping at them with the actual giant keys, destroying them one-by-one. "Get her to the ship!" Sora called to Riku, and Riku nodded. Reaching over the boat to her, he grabbed her wrist and began to run forward.

Sienna did not argue, but she did have a hard time keeping up. She barely even had time to take in the odd island, the small nooks and crannies just big enough for a young child to hide in,and the small makeshift shack in the center of it. No, instead, she was taken to a giant rocket-looking object, colored almost like a rainbow, beautiful and elegant in an almost scientific way. Sienna would have spent more time admiring the machine had she not been pulled right into it, and the door shut and locked.

The interior was almost as interesting as the exterior. In the room they had walked in, there was a steering wheel of an odd sort paired with a bunch of controls, a few of them looking dangerously like weapon launchers. Through an open door was a room that looked like a living room, with two yellow couches, a table, and windows to outside. Riku led her into that room, and they sat down on opposite couches.

"What's-"

"How much do you know about other worlds?" Riku asked her, although he probably already knew the answer to that.

Sienna scowled. "Hi," she said, angrily, "my name's Sienna, thank you guys for saving me from, what were those, the Heartless. How are you?"

Riku frowned, "Hi," he said, hastily, "just answer the question."

"If you mean other worlds, like Mars and Jupiter, not a lot. I barely remember their order from the sun. I just know that Earth is the third. Why do you ask?" Sienna asked now, suspiciously.

Riku shook his head, rubbing his temples discreetly, and answered, "No, not other worlds in the solar system. Other worlds as in, other dimensions." He paused, looking at Sienna's eyes travel all around the vehicle they were in, "if you've never been in a Gummi Ship before, probably not a lot," Riku answered for himself, "only Gummi Ships can take you to other worlds. Heartless aren't supposed to travel between them, but apparently, someone opened the Door to Darkness."

"What's the Door to Darkness?" Sienna asked, luckily having processed everything that Riku had told her.

Riku brought his hands to his chest and folded them across it, "It's a door in a world called End of the World. It's the door in End of the World, a world that the Heartless use to travel to all the different worlds. There is also a Door to Light, which we don't know a lot about yet. We know that it took us back home from The World that Never Was, another world where some members of Organization XIII lived."

"Now you've lost me," Sienna muttered, "Heartless travel through the End of the World, which has the Door to Darkness. I take it from the name that it brings darkness. There's a door to light that brought you back to Destiny Islands from some world where... What the hell is Organization XIII?"

"A group of Nobodies that were looking to get their hearts back, leaded by Xemnas. They're all gone, you don't have to worry about them."

"Nobodies?"

Riku sighed. This was obviously difficult for him. "You see those Heartless out there? When somebody's heart gets taken away, their lack of a heart turns their actual being into a Heartless. Got that?" Sienna nodded, "Aside from that, if the person whose heart was taken away had a strong heart, their empty shell, their heartless shell, will have survived. Those empty shells are called Nobodies. They aren't animals like Heartless; they think and remember, and they're a lot stronger. Those who had really strong hearts have Nobodies in a human form. You wouldn't be able to tell they were Nobodies just from talking to them."

That thought frightened Sienna, but another question was burning in her mind, "Why are you telling me all of this? I mean, I know I'm asking, but why are you even telling me?"

Riku sighed. "The Heartless don't attack just anybody, not when the world's being swallowed up, which is what Destiny Islands was doing. They were all after you, they wanted you for something. You might be with us for a while, and we don't need you to ask any questions later." He looked out one of the windows, "It looks like Sora and Kairi are coming."

"Wait," Sienna said, _There we go again,_ she thought, _I don't think Riku's going anywhere._ "What are those keys that you were holding? How did they just disappear into thin air?"

"They're called keyblades. Only keyblade wielders like Sora, Kairi and I can carry them and use them. We don't know how wielders are chosen, but we think it's from a strong heart." Sienna nodded, and Sora and Kairi walked in, panting. Their keyblades disappeared in their hands. "They're the only objects that can permanently destroy a Heartless or a Nobody."

"This is crazy," Sienna murmured, "so much that I've never known before." She paused. "You said that Gummi Ships travel to other worlds, right? Where are we going?" Sora walked into the other room, and Sienna's stomach flipped. She thought they were just taking shelter.

"Disney Castle. We need to find King Mickey." Kairi responded.

Sienna half-smiled, "No, really. Where are we going?"

Their facial expressions did not change in the slightest, and Sienna knew that she was in for quite the adventure.


	2. The Awakening

CHAPTER TWO

AWAKENING

-NOTE-

Yay, the chapter where things actually pick up a little bit! I hope, anyway. xD So, I realize that the description to this story is a little mediocre, but like I said, things will get better, and there's that stupid character limit. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, please read and review. x3

I'll skip the disclaimer for now, because I think you know what I mean when I say that I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Wow, did I just destroy the point of skipping the disclaimer?

-/NOTE-

"Whoa," Sienna started, thoroughly interested. Her chin was resting in the palms of her hands as she sat down in the lounge part of the Gummi Ship, listening to Riku and Kairi tell her of their adventures together and apart from Sora. Sora, however, was in the only other room of the Gummi ship, steering them towards the world that Kairi had called Disney Castle, but it could have been anywhere to Sienna; she had never visited another world. "You've actually done all that together?"

Kairi nodded, "And then, Sora and Riku went through the Door to the Light and came back to the play island, the one we lifted off of. Sora gave me my good luck charm back like he promised a year ago."

"That's romantic," Sienna stated matter-of-factly, but she did raise an eyebrow. She didn't know anything except the facts that Riku and Kairi had told her when it came to the Heartless, Nobodies, other worlds and keyblades, but if she did know anything, it was about fashion, makeup and boys. Those things were easy. These were difficult.

Kairi's face turned a deep shade of pink, but she just nodded after putting her fist up to her mouth. Riku took over, "The next day, Kairi found a message in a bottle from King Mickey. He said that there was a forgotten Princess of Heart, lost somewhere in the darkness. Some new enemy is after her as well, and apparently, her heart is strong enough, when purified, to open any door. Even ones that a keyblade couldn't. To find her, the enemy is unlocking all of the doors to the worlds." Riku paused, and Sienna looked down at her feet, "Pretty much, all of Sora's hard work, gone."

"So it was only a matter of time before Destiny Islands was sucked into the darkness," Sienna said, unblinking, "this is all so... scary. I want to go home. The stories are nice, but I don't know how I'd defend myself out there."

Riku shook his head. "It's a little late for that now. Besides, for all we know, you could be that eighth Princess of Heart." He paused again, looking at the surprised and disbelieving expression that spread across Sienna's big features, "Either way, the Heartless are after you. If you let yourself get sucked into another world, defenseless, it could be anywhere, not necessarily Traverse Town. You could be dead by now."

Sienna gulped, and closed her gaping mouth.

"We're here," Sora shouted, and the Gummi Ship suddenly angled downward. Sienna hadn't been ready for it when they lifted off, and she definitely was not ready for it when they readied to land. She screamed, grabbed onto Kairi's arm, who was grabbing onto the edge of the couch, but keeping quiet, until they finally came to a soft landing in a field of grass, before a large, beautiful castle.

"It doesn't look like the Heartless got here yet," Sora said, nodding his head approvingly. When he secured the vehicle, they all followed him out.

Sienna couldn't believe what was happening. Many different sensations filled her, a different kind of smell from their world, and a different look of things. Everything seemed more detailed here, somehow, more defined. The colors were brighter, and nothing looked exactly real anymore. The grass was definitely greener on the other side. Kairi, Sora, and Rikud didn't seem to notice the change.

"Come on," said Sora, walking to the front of them, the obvious unspoken leader of the group, "I think I still remember the way to that big throne room. Big, unnecessary doors, but it's really awesome, there are two smaller doors that everyone actually walks through, but you wouldn't notice them unless you pushed against them," Sora smiled back at them and laughed, even earning a chuckle from Kairi. Riku just grinned.

Sienna suddenly felt left out in the tight-knit family that Sora, Riku and Kairi had created for themselves.

So much for making new friends.

Finally, they made it to a door that led inside the castle, which wasn't exactly what Sienna expected. She expected servants walking around, asking you if you wanted tea. She expected the queen and king on gigantic thrones at the end of the entryway with peasants on their knees, asking for some food for their table. She didn't expect walking brooms cleaning up after every step you took, gigantic doors with smaller ones attached to them (just like Sora had said) or the king to be a _mouse_.

"You're kidding," Sienna repeated herself from the first time she heard about the king as they walked into the throne room. Sitting at a giant chair at the end, paired with a slightly newer chair next to it, was what looked like a giant, cartoon mouse. He didn't keep the same king-like poise that Sienna would have expected, but instead he rushed out of his chair and ran up to the three of them. Much to Sienna's continous surprise, he gave Riku a hug and quickly shook Sora and Kairi's hands.

"I'm glad you could make it," he said hastily, "I'm sorry your adventures couldn't have ended after ya beat Xemnas, but there's more trouble brewin'. Ya read my letter? Do ya understand everything?" The mouse asked frantically, and Sora responded.

"Yeah," Sora said, and Sienna realized he spoke like an Italian; with his hands. "There's an eighth Princess of Heart, but she was lost in the darkness?"

The King nodded, "Exactly. Her heart's really powerful; she coudl open any door. Nobody knows who she is, though, but Yen Sid told me, he saw it in a vision, and if ya can't trust Yen Sid, who can ya trust?" Sienna found herself lost again at the mention of Yen Sid, but she tried to stay on top of the conversation. "And now there are three others lookin' for her, too, and they've been unlockin' the doors of the world to do it." The king frowned, which looked slightly out-of-place on him, and he looked behind him nervously.

"Who are the others?" Riku asked, bending down onto one knee to better talk to the king. Unfortunately, the overgrown mouse shook his head.

"I only know two of them, Hades and Cruella De Vil. They've met up with someone else who's been givin' them a load of power. He's supposed to be gone so far in the darkness that he can control the Heartless better than Maleficent or Xehanort's Heartless ever could." Sienna didn't know what that meant exactly, but if someone was strong enough to _control_ those things that were coming after her instead of fighting them, they were obviously going to be the antagonist in whatever adventure they were going on. Sienna only knew one thing about this: she wasn't ready for any of it.

Sora shook his head, "I remember Hades, but not Cruella De Vil. Still, whoever's controlling the Heartless," he wrapped his arms around his chest and hightened his chin a little bit, "We can beat them. _And_ we'll restore the worlds. _And_ we'll find the eighth princess and return her to you."

Mickey's gigantic, round ears drooped out of worry, "Ya think ya can do it, Sora? I mean, I trust ya and all, but this is bigger than you've ever fought before." His eyes scanned over Kairi and Riku. "I also trust Riku, but Kairi needs a little more practice, maybe this'll be good for you. And... who's that?" It took Sienna a second to realize that Mickey's gigantic eyes had traveled towards her, and she backed up a pace.

"That's Sienna," Riku stated, standing back up to motion at her, "we found her at Destiny Islands. The Heartless want her, for some reason." He paused, "All three of us being keyblade wielders, and they wanted her the most. We think she might be important, and we thought maybe you would know why. Is she the missing Princess of Heart?"

Sienna opened her mouth to speak, and King Mickey shook his head. "Only Hades, Cruella and the last one are on the right track to the Princess, they've got some kind of a trackin' system. They're not heading anywhere for Destiny Islands. They're only unlockin' worlds to let Heartless through, but none of the Heartless are suckin' up the worlds. They're just lookin' for the Princess. If she's the reason that Destiny Islands has been swallowed by the darkness, though, ya might wanna keep an eye out. Bring her with ya."

Finally Sienna managed to speak, "I don't want to go anywhere," she blurted, "Isn't there anywhere I can stay?"

The king shook his head, "If ya stay here, the Heartless'll try and get ya, and I can't babysit ya. At least if you go with Sora, Riku and Kairi, they'll be able to protect ya as you go along. It just means a little more walking for ya."

Sienna was out of questions and excuses. She was going with Sora and the others to go 'lock up' worlds, whatever that meant, find the eighth Princess of Heart, and stop the three evil people. With no weapon. With only the knowledge of the other worlds that Riku and Kairi provided her with in their stories. After failing P.E. last year when she was a freshman. _Yeah_, she thought, _sounds like a blast._

"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Sora asked, frowning and looking around.

"They've started at the opposite direction 'a Cruella and Hades, in a place we thought the eighth Princess may be on accounta' their direction. You've gotta start in Hollow Bastion, though, because that's the last place they've been. Ya might catch up if ya follow the worlds in a line after that. But I should warn ya," the King looked down again, "the keyholes aren't where they were the first time."

"What?!" Sora asked, dismayed.

"Ya permanently locked those keyholes. Whoever's headin' Cruella and Hades made new ones, linkin' to the heart of the worlds, and unlocked them. They could be anywhere, but that's why I'm trustin' you three- or four- to find them."

"We will," Kairi said politely, nodding, "Let's go."

--

Again, Sienna found herself in the interior of the Gummi Ship, bracing herself as they took off. Sora had assured her that the trip to Hollow Bastion would be considerably shorter in comparison to the one to Disney Castle, but she wasn't too sure how much she could trust that statement; Sora was, after all, painstakingly optimistic.

"So..." Sienna started, and Kairi looked over at her. Riku, however, continued to look out to the space that surrounded them, not quite like outer space, but the odd gap of a space inbetween the dimensions. "What do I do?"

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked, smoothing out her light pink dress. All Sienna could think about at that moment was how much it didn't work for her. Kairi was a summer in her eyes, complexion and hair, and pastel colors just didn't work. She noticed easily that if that dress were just slightly brighter, her eyes would pop and her complexion would look healthier. She shook off that thought and answered Kairi before she felt stupid.

"Uh, what do I do when you guys are keyblading the Heartless?"

"Keyblading?" Riku asked, chuckling lightly. Sienna didn't even know that Riku had been listening at all, his mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

Kairi looked out a window as well, "You follow us around while we fight." Sienna immediately rejected that idea; she didn't want to fight exactly, but she didn't want to feel completely useless. She promised herself that when she moved to Destiny Islands she would _make_ something of herself. She was tired of being the girl at school that was known for getting failing grades, being the school slut, and being used and reused by guys as a girlfriend and girls as friends. She was tired of being useless.

"I can't just stand around," she murmured, but Kairi didn't seem to hear her. "Hey, can you show me your keyblade again?" Sienna asked.

Kairi nodded and held out her hand. In beautiful sparks, the flowery keyblade appeared inside of it as if it had never left. Sienna was amazed; she had never done too well in her science class (or math, or english, or history), but she knew that there was no explanation to that except magic. "That's amazing, can I see it?" Sienna asked feverishly.

"I don't think you can hold-" Kairi sat in the couch, baffled as Sienna grabbed the keyblade from her hand, and traced her left hand over the flowers on the end of the blade, memorizing the textures of the flowers.

This had even caught Riku's attention. "How can she hold it?" Kairi asked, a look of worry spreading across her face.

"Hold what?" Sora called from the other room.

"It's so pretty." Sienna mentioned nonchalantly, handing it back to Kairi, who took it, dumbfoundedly.

Riku walked over to the couch that Sienna and Kairi were sitting at, and took Sienna by the shoulders, making her face him. Looking deep into her hazel eyes, practically burying into her soul, he said, "Sienna, you're a keyblade wielder."

"What do you mean?" Sienna asked sheepishly as Riku let go, rubbing her left shoulder, "You mean that you have to be a keyblade wielder to hold those things?" She looked at the ceiling after she saw Riku nod. "I think you're wrong. The only talent I've got is cosmotology. I've never fought anyone in my life."

--

They walked out of the gummi ship. Again, Sienna was presented with a world full of sensations she wasn't used to, except this time she was anticipating the odd change if only slightly. They found themselves staring at a bailey full of small shops, but they were all deserted. At first, Sienna thought that the ground was some kind of a black obsidian stone, but she soon found she was mistaken as she saw a pair of giant, yellow eyes.

Sienna screamed, and Sora put a hand on her shoulder, covered with the fabric of her polo shirt. "Stay back, it looks like Darkside." He ran up with Kairi and Riku, all three of them carrying their unique keyblades. The giant shadow made a shape of itself, all of its features sculpting to look like a larger, more advanced Heartless that had been attacking her before. Sienna couldn't even stand to look at the large creature; she could practically feel her soul being sucked out of her the more it grew.

"What do I _do_?" Sienna called out, although she already knew the answer.

"Don't die!" Riku shouted back at her, and Sienna scowled. Don't die. Yeah, easier said than done, especially with a giant shadowy thing growing out of the ground. She nervously looked down at her own feet. Clean. She wiped some sweat off of her forehead.

"Wait, I'm-" Sienna stepped forward, but screamed. Her foot had dipped into a dent in the ground she hadn't seen when she was making her way forward, and when she looked down she only screamed louder. Darkness was swallowing up her foot, then her leg, and soon enough, it was down to her hips. She screamed, but nobody heard her. She couldn't hear herself. As the darkness reached her head, she lost all consciousness.

"What..." Sienna opened her eyes. She was standing on a bright platform in the darkness, definitely not in the attacked marketplace of Hollow Bastion. _I should be freaking out_, she told herself as she stared out into the blackness before her, _but why am I not?_

She looked down to observe the shapes slowly forming on the circular platform, shining brightly amongst the dark she found herself walking in. In the center of the platform was an image that looked frighteningly like herself. Yes, she could see it. The long, red-brown hair, curling just at the ends. The grayish, undefinable hazel eyes. The diamond face, but something was wrong. Her hands were against someone else's.

Her eyes widened. The boy whose hands she was against looked like Sora, but something was wrong as well. His hair was blond. His eyes were the same bright cobalt, but his face was more serious. Was it Sora's twin? No, it couldn't be. Wouldn't he have gone with them?

_Step forward. Can you do it?_

Sienna didn't even know where the voice was coming from. It didn't sound like it was coming from anywhere except her head. She tried stepping forward. It was difficult, more difficult than she could imagine. But she did. As she walked forward, a blinding light shone on her, and she closed her eyes.

_Why do you hide yourself from who you really are?_

She felt a weight in her hand. It felt so foreign, but so right, like she was always holding something, since she was born. She looked down, ignoring the lights. Sure enough, it was a keyblade. Sienna thought past her surprise, and took in every last detail of the weapon. It was long, longer than Kairi's, but shorter than Riku's. The handle was a pure white, curling up in ways undescribable. The length of the keyblade was black with white vines wrapping around it, finally ending in the pure white end. It looked monochrome, but it felt _right_.

"What's going on?" Sienna asked, but no sound came from her mouth. _I'm dreaming,_ she thought, serenely, _it's just a lucid dream._

_Can you fight?_

Sienna stopped and let her hand fall to her side, but her knuckles were white from the grip on her keyblade. Her eyes scanned the area frantically. From the center of the platform, right where the light was shining and right in front of her, a white being appeared into the air. No puffs of smoke, no glitter, it just _appeared_. It wasn't a heartless like she expected, but a tall white creature, swaying back and forth. "Is this a Nobody?" Sienna asked herself, but the voice didn't respond this time. Two more appeared to the side of her. "I guess I can now."

Sienna pointed her keyblade at the Nobody in front of her and thrust forward, not at all knowing what she was doing. The Nobody wrapped around it, and began to slither on the floor. Sienna found herself stunned, and quickly tripped to the ground by the Nobody. It reared up from above her and lunged down to stab her with its arm, but Sienna rolled out of the way, and blindly swiped her keyblade at the creature. Much to her surprise, she felt the recoil of contact, as it flew backwards.

The Nobody from her left came at her, and it began to slither around her. She knew immediately what was coming this time, and jumped out of the way as it tried to trip her. She had only jumped straight up, so she pointed her keyblade down and stabbed it into the Nobody. It began to collapse in on itself, and it disappeared into nothing, leaving behind what seemed like life energy.

The Nobody from before ran after her again, knocking Sienna to the side. She managed to regain her balance and slash at it again, and once more, this Nobody disappeared. She mimicked these moments with the last Nobody, and her keyblade disappeared in her hands. Her right hand was shaking from its grip on her keyblade so quickly lost, and she was sweating at the nape of her neck. "Did I do that?"

And then everything went white.

Again, Sienna found herself on a platform, but this one wasn't quite the same. Instead, on the center of the glowing platform she was standing on, which was a dodecagon instead of a circle, was a girl she did not recognize. She had medium-length brown hair with one black layer underneath, and she was staring at the heart-shaped moon at a three-quarter view with brown eyes. Her clothes were all gray.

Sienna couldn't even think about how much the gray washed out her Autumn skin tone as the entire platform was covered in black, and then a pair of glowing, yellow eyes. She ran to the edge of the platform, hoping to find some stairs down, or a way out. Instead, she almost fell of the edge, but caught herself and screamed a soundless scream. Her keyblade appeared in her hand, and Darkside towered over her.

Turning around and looking down at her keyblade, Sienna knew what she had to do.

In a frightening blast, the giant Heartless threw its hands down on the platform, darkness swirling underneath them. "Get its head," she murmured to herself, although she could hear nothing. She ran up to the hand, and began to tackle her next fear, heights. She ran up and up to its shoulder until she reached its head.

_Don't be afraid._

She took the keyblade, harnessing everything that she had seen in Sora, Riku and Kairi's fighting, nervous but knowing exactly what she had to do. She swiped at the creature and stabbed at its head, until she was finally thrown off and began to fall back-first.

_You have to face yourself._

As if by magic, she found some kind of a will, buried deep down in her core that she hadn't found before. Sienna caught herself in the air, and bounced forward, towards the creature. She struck at its similarly striking hand, and the creature cried out in fury. While Sienna landed on her feet, Darkside, suddenly tired, began to fall forward, collapsing on Sienna.

_You have your own unique talent. You can bring him out._

Everything went black.

--

"Sienna... Sienna, wake up! It's gone, we can go now. _Sienna_!"

Sienna recognized it. It was Kairi's worried voice. Her eyes didn't want to open, her muscles didn't want to move. Her arm felt weightless, like something was supposed to be in her hand, but it wasn't there. Finally, she pulled her eyes open. Three faces were floating above her, blurry but recognizable. She blinked again.

"You should have seen it," Sora said enthusiastically, "we weren't even close to beating it, and it just fell to the ground. And then we looked over and saw you unconscious. Are you alright, Sienna?"

Sora reached out to touch her, but Sienna recoiled, and she pushed herself up. Holding out her hand again, she waited for her keyblade, and there it was.

Everyone was silent but Riku. "I knew it."

**Author's Note:** Bah, another slow chapter. Dx I'm sorry, I swear it'll get better. Give me one last chance. D8 Anyway, I hope you liked it! I'll update ASAP.


	3. Disconnect the Dots

CHAPTER THREE:

DISCONNECT THE DOTS

-NOTE-

Okay, _here's_ the chapter where things get interesting, I swear it. xD There's gonna be some action, a new character, and something new altogether. So it's a huge bundle of newness. I'm not even going to bother with a disclaimer for a few chapters, because you all know by this chapter I'm sure. xD Please read and review!

-/NOTE-

"Sienna, what happened?" Kairi asked her, but Sienna was too busy dusting off her clothes. Apparently, she had fallen asleep and hit to the ground, but that didn't explain her having a keyblade. _I couldn't have been dreaming,_ she told herself. She remembered it vividly. The Nobodies that attacked her, the Darkside she destroyed, and the strange disembodied voice telling her that she could 'bring him out'. What the hell did that mean?

"I was on this weird, glowing platform, then I got this keyblade, and I killed these white things, I think they were Nobodies that Riku told me about, then I was on another platform and I was fighting that big thing that you guys called a Darkside, and then I was..." She frowned. Something didn't fit. "Asleep on the ground here."

Kairi rolled her eyes and shook her head. She followed Riku away from where they were standing. "That's silly. It was probably a weird dream."

"At least she's not useless now," Riku offered, although he was smirking.

Sienna frowned. "Look, I'm not lying," she said, although she said it too softly for anyone to hear her.

Sora touched her shoulder, clothed by her polo shirt, "I know you're not," Sora said, "the same thing happened to me a year ago. At least we know why the Heartless wanted you now," Sora offered, grinning and walking away, probably expecting Sienna to follow. She did, but she couldn't help but to wonder if this was some kind of a keyblade initiation, or if Sora was equally as crazy as Kairi and Riku thought Sienna was.

Every once in a while as they walked, Heartless would appear. Before Sienna could even think of attacking any of them, Sora had gotten the job done. There weren't that many, after all. The eighth Princess probably wasn't at Hollow Bastion at all. Still, Sienna was very happy with her lack of attacking; she was still sort of shaking from her encounter with Darkside, all alone, in the darkness, whether or not he was just a figment of her unconscious imagination.

Sienna did know, however, that her jeans had dirt all over them, and they had to be hand-washed. Not a good sign, at least not in the Book of Sienna.

There were other things in the Book of Sienna as well.

The first was hair. She had many rules for that. There's no excuse for frizzy hair; there's something called a defrizzing lustrant that you could get for barely any money at all. She also knew that some people just shouldn't wear headbands, and people like Kairi shouldn't straighten their hair, because it made it look thin and weak. She knew that people with long hair shouldn't have more than three layers, and so much more.

The second was nails. She knew that it was better for younger kids to just push their cuticles back instead of cutting them. Black nail polish was coming back, but if you wore it with a black outfit, it wasn't eighties shique, it was full out emo. Red nails are only excused in formal situations or if you're a full-out Summer.

The third was clothes. Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch were only worth it if you could really afford it, but if not, there were always look-a-likes. Cotton is by far the best material for clothes, and definitely the most durable. She knew the difference between a decent outfit on the runway and a totally ridiculous one.

The third, she hoped, would be keyblades, other worlds, Heartless, Nobodies, Princesses of Heart, and the Door to Darkness.

"What are we looking for?" Sienna asked finally, after the uncomfortable silence.

"Leon, get _back_ here!" A girl called from the distance. Far ahead, Sienna could see a girl hopping over roofs, chasing another, male figure, who was doing the same. She couldn't make them out too well, but she could see a giant sword of some kind in the hand of the male, and two star-like object in the female's.

"Yuffie and Leon!" Sora shouted happily, and began to scale the side of the building, which, conveniently, held a ladder. Sienna followed close after Sora, content in finally not being the last one, and followed by Kairi and Riku. She didn't have quite the upper arm strength that she could have, but it was enough to bring her up a ladder. Plus, her arms were still sore from fighting Darkside- another sure sign that it couldn't have been a dream.

Finally, after hopping at least twelve roofs, they stopped and reached the two of them. The girl was short and looked like a Japanese ninja, with short black hair and laugh lines on her face. The man, whom she guessed was Leon as Yuffie was a girl's name, had oddly shaped brown hair and a gunblade in his hands.

He was pointing it at a woman with white and black hair, adorned with fur, and a man in odd clothes with hair that looked like _fire_. Sienna had never seein either one of them before, but something told her that they were Cruella and Hades.

"I told you I saw them!" Leon exclaimed.

Yuffie crossed her arms, but she must have noticed Sora and the others, because she suddenly perked up, "You got King Mickey's note!" She grinned, and readied her star-like weapons at the two of them, "These two were just about to surrender."

"Pretty hair you've got there," Cruella started, "I'm sure it would make an amazing hat." She gave a malicious grin. Sienna almost recoiled until she remembered that animals could smell fear in people. She wondered if it was the same for people with the power to control the darkness and people without it.

"Who's leading you?" Leon asked angrily, pointing his gunblade at Hades, the closest one to him. Cruella stood close, however, crossing her arms over her chest and laughing haughtily, waiting for a response from Hades.

"Our _leader_ has a previous engagement," Hades said, grinning, "but don't think of her as our leader. Nobody leads the king of the underworld, you can memorize that now." He grinned to see the surprised look on Sora's face.

"_Her?_" Sora asked.

"It's a girl?" Sienna asked, suddenly confused. Apparently, King Mickey didn't know any more about this 'strong leader' of the three than any of them had. The weight returned to her hands; her keyblade was back.

"Tell us who she is," Leon started, "or I'll destroy you."

"Leon, you can't!" Sora shouted, "He's technically a God. You can't kill him. You can't even hurt him unless you've got the Olympus stone."

"Smart boy," Hades said, his tone surprisingly calm. He rested his elbow on his one folded arm and his head on his palm, as if he was thinking. Suddenly, his grin became malicious again, and he laughed. "Seems like she wants to meet you." He paused, and looked up at the sky. Putting his hand to his head, he saluted them, "Later. We'll be sending more Heartless!" He and Cruella disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sienna clenched her fists. They already made her angrier than anyone else she ever met.

"What-" Kairi started, a noticeable shake in her voice, "they just... disappeared."

"Yeah," Sora mumbled, "but Hades always does that." Sora sighed. "I didn't expect us to be able to beat them so early, anyway." He paused, "I guess our next stop is the Olympus Colloseum. Maybe Hercules has got another Olympus Stone."

"So you guys are definitely doing it," Leon's calm and low voice stated, walking over to Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Sienna. He sized up Sora very well, having at least a foot on him. It wasn't surprising, however. Despite being taller than Sienna, Sora was quite short for a boy, and Leon had to be quite a few years older than him. "You're going to go find the eighth Princess of Heart." He shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Kairi asked softly.

"Didn't you hear Mickey?" Yuna asked, equally soft, and frowning, uncharacteristic on her happy and determined face, "She's lost in the darkness somewhere. We don't know if that's literal or metaphorical. Either way, you're going to have to travel into the darkness to save her." She paused. "Can Riku take that again?"

Riku's head twitched as if he started to nod, but he did not. Instead, he was relieved of answering by a noise that Sienna and the others heard behind them.

"Ex_actly_," came a girl's voice from about fifteen feet behind them. Sienna turned around. Sitting at the edge of the roof next to the one they were on, at least three feet higher than they were, was a girl that looked to be in her mid-teenage years. She had medium-length brown hair, choppy and straight, with one black layer underneath, and golden brown eyes, glinting in Hollow Bastion's golden sun. She was wearing jean shorts and a black tank top, flowing down one part of her leg, all the way down to her knee. In her hand was a keyblade that looked like it was made of ice, coming to jagged ends that looked like icicles. Their main enemy was actually a keyblade wielder; a keyblade wielder that could control the darkness. That did not sound good. "That's why Hades, Cruella and I are searching the Light realm first. Our Heartless are busy in the Dark realm, but we've got enough to help out here, too."

She was so _calm_, Sienna noticed. The evil smirk on her face betrayed the relaxed pose she was in. She barely looked at them in their eyes, just glancing up from her feet every once in a while. There was something beyond her eyes that looked like she was on moonshine; her mind was obviously back at some other world. Yet, there was something _familiar_ about her that Sienna couldn't quite place. "Who are you?" Sora asked angrily, pointing his Kingdom Key at the girl, who looked up with slight mock surprise.

"Careful," she said nonchalantly, and without even moving, tens of Heartless showed their faces, appearing around her. She snapped her head up from her feet to look at Sora, Riku, Kairi, Sienna, Yuffie, and Leon, and then with a twitch of her head, the Heartless slunk behind her; she was obviously ready for backup in case of an attack. "you want to stop us from finding the eighth Princess?" Her calmness was almost enraging Sienna, but at the same time, she respected her. This was exactly how Sienna acted back at her old school, back where all that mattered to her was all that was in her metaphorical 'book'. Back where she was popular and she knew all she needed to know.

Nobody said anything, but her smile grew, and she leaped down from the roof of the other building. She walked over to Riku, whose grip on his keyblade tightened, but he did not lift it. She put a hand on his face, a movement none of them expected, "You've walked the darkness before." She grinned. "Beautiful path."

"Why are you trying to open the Door to Darkness?" Sora asked, trying to hold in the anger that was obviously bubbling up inside of him.

"Not just the Door to Darkness," She let her hand slowly slide off of Riku's face, which was now pink, "I plan on opening much more than that. Something you locked up a year ago." She smiled excitedly.

Even I remembered that part of the story, despite everything I had not taken in. Sora had opened Kingdom Hearts. Depending on the heart strong enough to control it, it could be full of darkness or full of light. Sora destroyed Xehanort's Heartless simply by _deciding_ it was light. Who was to say that this girl couldn't do the same.

"Hey, guys, what's-" A voice came from behind them. They turned around to observe the figure; this was the man that Sora and the rest of them had known as Cloud. He had spikey blond hair and dark clothing on, and he was carrying a giant broadsword of some kind. "No..." he murmured to himself.

Like the red sea, the girl parted through Sienna and the rest of them and walked up to Cloud. He gulped, and was trying the hardest he could to keep his posture, but there was some kind of an odd shock on his face, mixed with something that knew who it was all along. "Cloud, even after Hades offered you that path, you took this one." She looked down at her own feet, disappointment finally spreading over her features. She shook her head and looked back towards Sienna, a kind of anger taking over her face. "Stay out of my way," she warned them, pointing her keyblade at them. The Heartless crowded the other side of the five of them, Cloud safely out of the way, "or I'll add your heart to Axel's collection."

"_Axel?!_" Kairi, Sora and Riku all seemed to shout at the same time.

The girl looked proud of herself, "Yes. I have _Hades_ with me, King of the Dead. Turns out her could even bring back dead _Nobodies_. I was shocked, too," she grinned, "Axel was strong, so my sources told me. I promised him hearts, so one day he may find the perfect one to become human again in exchange for his services."

"I don't believe it," Sora murmured, "Axel was-is- Roxas's best friend. Why would he fight against them?"

The girl raised her eyebrows, and then looked behind her at Cloud, who stepped back a pace. She returned her gaze to Sora. "People change." Before she disappeared in a set of beautiful sparks, she directed a glance towards Riku. Never once had she given Sienna a second glance, but Sienna finally remembered where she had seen this girl; she was the girl wearing grey on the second platform on her 'dream'; the one she had fought Darkside on. Why wasn't she wearing grey then, she wondered.

"Do you know her?" Leon asked Cloud quietly.

Cloud sighed. "You might want to come to the base."

--

The base, it turned out, was actually the base of action for the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. Sienna was introduced to Sid, Aerith, Tifa, Rinoa, the newest member, and Merlin, who she wished she hadn't met, who was, when she walked in, running around the house in his underwear singing 'Joy to the World'. They sat down in relatively comfortable couches in the large room by the entryway.

"That girl is Cora," Cloud started, "when I was younger, she was another neighbor of mine. I've known her since we were small." He paused, "We used to play a lot when we were younger. I would have never guessed that she would choose the path of darkness. Imagine my surprise when I saw her."

"Were you friends?" Sienna asked.

Cloud shrugged. "I was more of her babysitter. I was about six years older than her. Her mother was also a part of SOLDIER, but I found that out later. Once she died, she went missing, but I learned that after I had begun to live my separate life."

"Cora," Riku said himself slowly, tasting the new word on his lips. "She's the one who's learned to control the darkness."

"And she wants to open Kingdom Hearts," Sora shook his head.

"Hey," Aerith called from the connected kitchen, looking inside of the cabinet, "there's a keyhole in here."

Suddnely, Sora's somber mood disappeared. His face twisted into laughter, and after a few seconds of chuckling, he fell to the ground, full-out laughing. "They actually put the keyhole in the kitchen cabinet."

"I guess Cora has a sense of humor," Riku suggested.

Sora got up and walked to the cabinet to seal the keyhole. There were fantastic sparks of a colorful variety, and something that was probably ten times more beautiful if you were the one locking up the keyhole.

"Probably won't stop the Heartless, though," Leon said pessimistically, "it never did before. But it should be a lot easier on the defense system. We probably won't even need to be out there destroying the Heartless."

Aerith smiled sadly, and looked over at Sienna. "How about you guys spend the night. It's getting very late."

--

Sienna couldn't sleep. Insomnia was one of her best-kept secrets, but that was because she had slept alone. She pretended to sleep until she heard the light, telltale snoring from who she had guessed was Sora. Instead, she lay on top of the couch, complimentary to the one Riku was lying on, and Kairi and Sora were both under blankets on the ground.

Sienna didn't know when she was getting back to Destiny Islands, her new home, or her family. And somehow, she was okay with that.

She looked over at Riku. He lied with his arms spread out behind him, his mouth hanging open and drooling slightly, no covers on at all. Obviously, he was a little warm. Looking down, Kairi was much more reserved, her face buried in her pillow and her whole body wrapped up in the red blanket around her. Sora was next to her, his arms out of the blanket, but the rest of his body comfortably inside of it.

Sienna got off of the couch carefully, and crept over to where Sora was sleeping. She knelt down next to him, softly thanking him for understanding earlier that day. As she put a hand on her arm, she recoiled, feeling static electricity.

Then, everything changed.

Sora shifted under his covers, and he stood up. It was still the same Sora, but something in his eyes said something else. His expression was serious, and he was looking straight into Sienna's eyes, something that Sora hadn't done. "Sienna," he said. Sora's voice was completely different. Sienna crawled backwards, recoiling.

"Sienna, I need you to get me out of this shell."

"What?" Sienna asked, worried, but she put her hands over her mouth when Kairi shifted under her covers. She switched the direction she was lying, but did not open her eyes or scream out or anything. Sienna let out a sigh. "Sora, what's wrong?"

"I'm not Sora."

Sienna cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

He narrowed his eyes, the bright cobalt orbs burying into Sienna. "My name is Roxas."

**Author's Note: **To get this idea out of the way fast, Sora doesn't have dual personalities. xD I'm sure you can guess why the Heartless want Sienna by now, but I'll leave the rest to the imagination untilI get the next chapter up. I promise I'll update soon! Thanks for reading!


	4. Amulet

CHAPTER FOUR:

AMULET

-NOTE-

Yay, I made it to the fourth chapter! xD So, finally, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Sienna are on their way to retrieve something that would help them fight Hades. Will they have any unexpected encounters? Foreshadowing! That's just because I love the few people that read my fanfiction. xD Anyway, enjoy, and please read and review!

-/NOTE-

Sienna stared at Sora, or whoever the boy was, dumbfounded. _Is this common_, Sienna thought nervously, looking at Sora in his cobalt eyes, _is he always having identity crisises like this or am I just unlucky?_ "Sora," Sienna began, "what are you talking about?"

Sora, or the boy that called himself Roxas, shook his head feverishly, "I told you, I'm not Sora. I'm Sora's Nobody, Roxas."

_I knew that name sounded familiar,_ Sienna thought. This was the Roxas that Riku had told her about, the one that Riku fought a while back. He was the second half of Sora, the empty shell left behind when he took away his own heart. He had returned into Sora before Sora finally defeated Xemnas. "Okay," Sienna finally whispered, "I believe you. Roxas." She paused. "Are you... I don't know, allowed to just, like, come out like that?"

Roxas raised his- or Sora's- eyebrow. "You're the one who let me take over Sora's body."

"What do you mean?" Sienna asked a little too quickly. She wanted to back up more, pinch herself to wake up out of that nightmare or something, but instead, she found herself frozen where she sat.

"You can make the switch," Roxas explained, "by touching someone with a Nobody, you let them take over their Somebody's body. At least, that was what I thought, and I guess you proved it." He gave a grin that was on Sora's face, but it didn't look like Sora's smile. It wasn't happy, it didn't stretch from ear to ear. It was soft and reserved, and if Sienna was correct, it looked a little _sad_.

"Can I pull you out?" Sienna asked, although she wasn't too sure of what she was thinking herself. If she did pull him out, would he be some kind of translucent ghost?

Roxas shrugged Sora's shoulders, "I don't know."

Without thinking, Sienna reached out her hand and put it on Sora's clothed shoulder, and much to her surprise, or maybe lack thereof, she felt something beneath his clothes, beneath his skin; a shifting shoulder that wasn't Sora's. As Sienna concentrated, she could feel herself gripping Roxas's shoulder, and almost pulled it out of Sora's body. She was so close.

"Sora's waking up!" Roxas hissed weakly.

Sienna recoiled, taking her hand back to her side. She managed to stand up and look down at Roxas, seemingly struggling to stay in control of the body. "Tomorrow night, I'll try again," Sienna promised, and she stumbled over to the couch that she was lying on, trying to make it seem as though she had been there the whole time.

Sure enough, she heard shuffling from where Sora had been sleeping, and then some kind of scratching noise. _Yuck_, she thought,_ there's nothing more disgusting than scratching to me._ For a moment, Sienna decided to forget about cosmetics, skin and clothing, and she let her eyes travel over to where Riku was sleeping.

He wasn't there.

Although Sienna was confused for a moment, she shrugged it off with no problem. _He's probably in the bathroom,_ she thought to herself. As she made her best effort to fall asleep in the Hollow Bastion Restoration Site, she could still feel the tingling of where her fingers had managed to reach into Sora and touch Roxas's shoulder. She smiled in remembrance and dug her face into her pillow. She was special, after all.

And Roxas's shoulder was so warm.

They woke up early the next morning, ready to find Cora, Hades and Cruella, but some of them not very willing. Kairi was sore from the day before, and Sienna was still dazed from the night that she had gotten no sleep, and the lucid dream about meeting Roxas for the first time, but he was within Sora's body. Or was she not dreaming? Sienna wasn't too sure, but she remembered that she told Roxas that they would talk again the next night. It was worth a shot, even if Sora woke up to her touching his arm. Although, she admitted to herself, it probably would have been pretty weird.

Riku was not on the couch when she woke up, so she had supposed that he woke up earlier than her, although it was pretty suspicious; his sheets hadn't moved an inch from where they had been when she had finally fallen asleep.

"Where to next?" Sora asked himself happily as they stepped into the Gummi Ship. He stared at some kind of a radar, and suddenly beamed, "Right, I forgot," he started, and the entire group could practically hear the (rarely used) gears turning in his head, "we've got to get to Olympus Coliseum and get the Olympus Stone." He paused, seeing the blank looks on his companion's faces, "You know, so we can attack Hades. I'm pretty sure that Hercules has still got it, he'll lend it to us no problem."

"Will Cora and the others be there?" Riku asked quickly enough to catch Kairi's attention, who was rubbing her left arm. It was just then that Sienna noticed slight bags under Riku's eyes, another telltale sign that he hadn't returned to where he had been sleeping back at the Restoration Committee's headquarters the previous night. However, Riku still acted as he always did, a friend towards Sora and Kairi, serious and calm, but cold and condescending towards Sienna for reasons she didn't quite understand. She wouldn't bring it up, however, because Riku was nice enough to save her from the Heartless back at the play island at Destiny Islands and explain to her what they were. He also helped Kairi tell all of the stories of their travels to catch Sienna up. She had no real reason to be upset with Riku, but she wanted to slap him at the same time, because he didn't have a reason to be upset with her.

Sora looked back suspiciously, right when Sienna regained her thought process and remembered what Riku was asking. But why was he asking it? Curiously, Sienna, for once, sat back and listened. Sora began pressing and pulling a bunch of different buttons and levers, as he prepared the ship to take off, "Yeah, maybe," he muttered with some kind of a twitch in his eye and started the ship, but this time, Sienna knew how to brace herself. She didn't even scream as it lifted off at an eighty degree angle.

"Where were you last night?" Kairi asked Riku. Sienna was genuinely surprised; she didn't know that Kairi was awake at all. Had Riku been awake and out of his couch for more than a few moments? The shadows under his eyes could answer that question for her. More importantly, did Kairi see anything else? Sienna tried not to act suspicious, although questions were burning through her head like it was doused in gasoline and put to a newly lighted match, so she just lounged back in the small couch she and Kairi were sitting on opposite of Riku, and waited for his answer.

Riku hesitated, "I thought I heard something outside," he started, "but there was nothing. I didn't feel like going back inside to sleep because of Sora's snoring, so I stayed outside on the steps and watched the defense system destroy every Heartless that popped out of the shadows on the ground." Although Riku smiled, Sienna couldn't help but to see a kind of sadistic side of him. She shuddered and looked away. Still, even if he was lying about Sora's snoring keeping him from going back outside, she had to say it was an amazing lie. His snoring was pretty loud and obnoxious for someone so average-sized.

Much of the ride in the Gummi Ship passed in an uneasy silence, but Sienna found that once she spent most of her time staring out the window, the time passed much faster. She couldn't believe some of the things she saw; worlds that looked just like a piece of the earth, floating into nothing. They looked unreachable, but somehow the ship was able to reach them. They looked like something out of a storybook, the ones that she would run her fingers across when she was a little girl just to get as close as she could to the floating worlds, so far beyond her reach in all reality.

She used to love reading.

Finally when they landed, Sienna stepped out. She was quite used to the different sensations that she began to feel with each and every world she was pulled into by these three, but something she couldn't handle was the burning heat that was emitting from the sun, much to close to the world. Sienna couldn't stand the heat; she was only comfortable when it was cold outside, in her room, in cold showers, and wherever she went. That's why it was such an adjustment to move from her cool hom eup in northern America down to Destiny Islands; it was possibly the most uncomfortable one.

The scenery, however, was gorgeous. Although Sienna could tell what was made of concrete and what was made of finer metals, everything shimmered like it was spun out of gold and created by the hands of a God. They stood at a huge entryway to a beautiful building with grand arches and doors too big for any human to push open (although they must have managed somehow). Sienna was immediately reminded of the old cathedrals which were built so that the top of it was pointing up to Heaven (what was that called, she wondered, gothic architecture?), except this was much more marvelous. It seemed, instead of reaching up to Heaven, Heaven was reaching down to the building.

"That's the Coliseum," Riku stated very matter-of-factly as he walked next to Sienna, although his eyes never met hers, "Gladiators duel with monsters or other gladiators here for entertainment for the audience or to be the strongest heroes in Olympus. Usually all they get is a trophy, though, and some limb not working."

Sienna gulped as they walked forward, closer and closer to the Coliseum, "When you say 'duel', what do you-" Sienna was interrupted by Riku, who had been expecting, or possibly wanting to hear, that question.

"Fight to the death."

"Oh." Sienna muttered although she was probably the only one that heard herself. Finally, they reached the doors to the Coliseum, and with the help of Riku, Sora opened the doors with a great push. The inside lobby wasn't quite as grand, but Sienna noticed a set of trophies placed conveniently on little shelves, and some kind of a giant cube to the right of them. She wasn't too interested in learning what the cube was for.

"Sora!" an excited voice called from farther into the lobby. It was gruff sounding, reminding Sienna of the troll from The Three Billy Goats Gruff, her favorite bedtime story when she was a child. What ran up to Sora wasn't quite what she was expecting, although the height and the hairiness met the criteria. There seemed to be a little man with horns coming out of his head. His legs were made out of goat hooves and his chest was that of a human's, just like his hand. Sienna should have been surprised and worried, but a half-man half-goat was nothing in comparison to what she had seen before. At least, she thought, things like this were in mythology. Nowhere in school did they bother telling them about Heartless and Nobodies and darkness in their textbooks, or maybe Sienna would have paid more attention. Then again, maybe she wouldn't have.

"Phil!" Sora replied happily, grabbing the thing in to some kind of a friendly embrace. _Phil_, Sienna thought, _what a boring name for something so weird_.

"Sora, full-blown hero and..." Phil glanced at Kairi, Riku and Sienna, and then frowned, taking Sora by the arms, "where are the other two? Donald and Goofy?" His frown worsened, "Don't tell me that they got themselves killed in the Underworld." He pulled away form Sora before he got a chance to answer, and made a motion as if he were pulling up his sleeves, although he had none, "I'll go down there and teach that Hades a lesson, whether or not the Olympus Stone's gone, he's gonna answer to me."

"Gone?" Riku asked, being the only one to catch that the first time around. For being so tired-looking, he was definitely on his toes.

"You didn't hear?" Phil asked, a little too angrily and gruffly for such a neutral question, Sienna thought. Then again, if he got some soothing aromatherapy maybe he wouldn't be so tense. Or, maybe, it would help if he didn't work around an arena where people fight to the death for nothing but glory. "After seeing how much Hades wanted the Olympus Stone for himself so nobody could attack him, Zeus destroyed the Stone," he made an odd motion with his hands, "totally crushed it."

Kairi looked stricken. "So, there's no way to fight Hades anymore?"

Phil sighed. "I heard about your situation, and went right up to Mount Olympus because I knew you guys would be coming down here. Although, I gotta admit, things are so much more peaceful without Hades, but all the dead are getting restless, lining up outside his door to be admitted. He left Pain and Panic in charge, but they just don't have what it takes. Anyway, I went up to Mount Olympus and asked Zeus if there was any other way to fight a god- or, whatever the opposite is," Phil chuckled, "I'm surprised Zeus responded. He said that there are two other objects, but one of them is up at Mount Olympus. The other one, the Olympus Amulet was thrown down by Hermes when he found it somewhere in the Underworld."

"The Underworld?" Sienna asked, and she gulped. Her keyblade, coming at the perfect time as always, appeared in her hand, and she gripped onto it like it was her last anchor to that world. "Like, Hell?"

Phil looked up at Sienna, "Yeah, kid, just like Hell."

Sienna gulped and nodded, trying not to give away that she had only fought once before, and even that might have been a complete dream. She didn't want to be helpless, but she didn't want to die before her time, either.

"We'll do it," Sora answered, "and we don't have to worry about locking up any keyholes, because it's not unlocked here. Hades wouldn't unlock his own world if he has to come back to a bunch of annoying Heartless later, right?" He looked at Riku, who nodded. Kairi did as well, but Sienna didn't know, so she stayed still.

"I don't know where exactly it is down there, so good luck." Phil then looked up at Sienna, catching her by surprise, "Oh, and kid?" Sora looked over at Phil, and then back at Sienna, "I don't have time for this one, but I see potential in her. Make her a heroine."

Sienna blushed, slightly embarrassed. Never in her life did anyone except her parents say that they saw potential in her, or any form of possible success. She was more shocked by Sora's reaction, who smiled and nodded quickly, as if he didn't need to hear it from Phil; he was sure of the same thing.

Sora led them out of the Coliseum and down to something Sienna hadn't noticed before, or maybe it hadn't been there before, an odd stairway that reached downard into the ground. Purple, red, and black filled the bottom, and she wasn't sure exactly what to expect. Still, she followed Sora. As she reached the bottom, she felt a change of pressure, as if she had been living on a mountain for years. Everything seemed heavier, every smell stronger, and ever thought threatening to make her head explode. The Underworld was not what she expected; she expected fire and brimstone, spirits reaching out of the ground to grab her, and other things of the like. No, instead they were surrounded by cave-like rocks, shining odd colors of purple, and on occasion, puddles on the ground, probably collected from rain from above. Still, she hadn't expected 'underworld' to be literally underground- she never expected that out of Hell, either. She wasn't very religious, but she was religious enough to know that Hell couldn't possibly be right under where people walked.

Sienna found herself wishing she paid more attention in Greek Mythology. And physical education, for that matter; her feet were killing her already. That could have been caused by the change of pressure, though.

"Look at that," Kairi pointed out to everybody with her keyblade. Where she was pointing was a line of people, half of them scared and the other half upset (although the occasional one had a maniacal look on his or her face), waiting in line to go through some sort of entryway. All of them were translucent. Sienna tried to hide the shiver that was crawling up and down her spine, but she couldn't. "Those must be the dead that Hades said were getting restless." Kairi frowned, "If Pain and Panic are up there, they shouldn't be hard to get passed."

Sora smiled down at her, "You're becoming more like me every day, Kairi," he admitted, throwing his keyblade across his shoulder.

Kairi blushed, "I'm around you guys too much."

Riku, however, had something else entirely on his mind. "How are we supposed to get passed them?" he asked, "We can't just fight them out of the way. They're just trying to do their job, after all."

Sora stood thinking for a moment, and then he looked at the ceiling. "Maybe we don't have to," he said, trying not to speak so loudly over the restless dead, shouting now, wanting to get in. He pointed his Kingdom Key up at the ceiling and whispered, "Gravira!"

Nothing happened for a moment, and Sienna wondered if Sora had gone crazy. However, she knew that she could trust his judgement when she saw the ceiling beginning to shake. In only moments, rocks came tumbling down, and Sora pushed them out of the way of where the rockslide was occuring. Sienna was careful of not letting Sora touch any open skin, but it became difficult.

Sora's plan worked. Two little imps, one thin and blue and the other fat and a pinkish-red rushed out, completely baffled. They began to scream at the dead not to panic, but Sienna, Sora, Riku and Kairi managed to escape into the other room. It was very similar to the first, except Sienna could swear that it smelled worse. There was also some kind of arena that she couldn't quite make out, but Kairi took her hand and whisked her away to another area of the place, ten times rockier than the first two, probably so Pain and Panic wouldn't notice them once they've assured the spirits that the Underworld was safe.

"We have to think," Sora started, "where would an amulet be down here?" He then smushed his face into something unrecognizable in concentration.

"Don't hurt yourself," Sienna murmured.

"No, I was just thinking," started Sora, "that things would be a lot easier if this was in that treasure cave in Agrabah. Or maybe it would be harder. There was a lot more treasure there. It looks like all that's under here is rock.

"What about where Hades lives?" Sienna asked. Abruptly, her pulse rate sped up when they all looked at her. For once, she had all of their attention, and she didn't even know what to do about it. "Well," she began, "think about it. He wanted the Olympus Stone. Doesn't he look over everything here? If he saw the Olympus Amulet, wouldn't he want it?"

For the first time, Riku gave Sienna a proud, real smile. Sora smiled as well, but it was that same enthusiastic and optimistic smile he was usually equipped with. Kairi, however, nodded importantly. "You're right," she said, "it makes a lot of sense." After a moment of silence, she said, "Don't take this the wrong way, Sienna, but I didn't know you were that smart." She blushed out of embarassment.

Sienna shook her head. "Me, either."

"I think I remember the way to where Hades-" Sora was stopped, as a bunch of dog-looking things started to bombard them, snarling and rushing towards them.

"Are these Heartless?!" Sienna asked hurriedly, putting her keyblade in front of her, shaking. She had only ever seen the cute little black ones with the shining yellow eyes and the weird looking arms. Like animals, she supposed, there were probably a bunch of other species, like the Darkside that they had battled.

"No, they're Nazis," a voice remarked sarcastically. As Sienna held her keyblade in front of her, standing back-to-back with Sora, Riku and Kairi, she looked around, until she finally fount Cora, standing on a platform in the rocky room they inhabited. Sienna would be slightly annoyed, but she was mostly frightened as she saw the object that Sienna was throwing up and down and catching- it looked like a golden amulet with a swirling cloud shape on it. The object seemed to beautiful to belong down in the Underworld; it looked as if it belonged in the sunlight, somewhere it could shine.

"Cora!" Sora shouted, putting on his 'angry face', which was really just determination, Sienna noticed. "What are you doing in the Underworld?" _Aside from the obvious,_ is what Sienna was thinking. She recognized the fact that Cora probably belonged there even if she was just retrieving the amulet.

Cora grinned. She looked over at Riku, smiling, and then scanned over Sora, Kairi and Sienna, all in order. Sienna noticed that both times they had seen her, she was always standing- or sitting- on some kind of a platform that was higher up than they were. It was odd, because she seemed to be at least an inch taller than Sienna, but she seemed to have some pride issues. "What, were you after the amulet?" Cora asked, chuckling. "I'm sorry," she said, her face now growing angry, "but you didn't think that I would make it that easy for you to destroy one of my assistants, did you?"

"If only you knew what your 'assistant' thinks of you," Kairi said bitterly, although she would not look up at Cora. Sienna shook her head; Kairi was often all words and no action to Sienna, but she couldn't blame her; Cora was somewhat intimidating. Sora rarely looked into her eyes, either, but Riku was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to.

"I know a lot more than you think, Kairi," Cora responded.

Kairi recoiled, followed by Sora. "How did you know her name?" Sora shouted bitterly. _Names,_ Sienna thought and laughed, _Cora rhymes with Sora. I wonder how Sora feels about that one right there._ Sienna felt like slapping herself; she wasn't able to focus. She didn't know if it was something about the Underworld's fumes or what, but she did know that Cora would get away with the amulet if they didn't stop her.

"Just give us the amulet!" Sienna called, surprised by her own anger, when Cora would not answer. Her grip on her keyblade tightened until her knuckles were white and her hand was trembling, but she didn't care.

Cora briefly turned her gaze towards Sienna, but looked away, uninterested, "Coming from a girl who _just_ got her keyblade. How many Heartless have you destroyed? One, two? None?" Cora hit a weak spot. No, Sienna hadn't technically destroyed any Heartless, at least not outside of her dream or whatever it was. She hung her head a little bit, and backed away. "Don't make empty threats. Especially not against someone who has two years of experience on you, Sienna."

_There she goes again,_ Sienna thought, _how does she know all this?_ Sora, however, was surprised in an entirely different fashion, "You've had your keyblade for two years?!" Sora asked, confused. "That's almost a half of a year before I got mine."

Cora raised her chin in dignity and smirked. "I know," was what she responded, "whoever it us up there that decides who gets the keyblades expected _me_ to save the worlds from getting swallowed up by the darkness. I almost agreed," she looked directly at Riku, "until I found a much more satisfying path." Her smirk turned into a grin, and Sienna thought she saw a muscle twitch on Riku's face, but it was gone before she could make anything out of it. "Either way," she put the amulet around her neck, "Have fun escaping from the Underworld." Her keyblade appeared in her hand faster than Sienna's had ever appeared in her own, and she pointed it at the ground below her, where Sora, Riku, Kairi and Sienna were standing, and tens of normal Shadow Heartless accompanied with five very large and fat ones appeared out of nothing. Sienna scanned the Heartless and then looked back where Cora was standing- she was gone.

"What do we do now?" Sienna asked nervously, swiping at the Heartless like she had remembered in her dream. Everything had almost felt second-nature, like there was somebody completely different controlling her every move. She knew when to evade and when to strike, but it might have just been from watching Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Much to her enthusiasm, she had destroyed two Heartless in less than fifteen seconds. Sienna could not hide the grin in her face out of pride.

"Cora took the amulet," Kairi reminded Sora, fighting as well. Sienna was completely stunned watching Kairi fight the Heartless up-close for the first time; Sora only used a few days to teach her how to fight, but she was already almost as strong as Sora. Riku, however, fought with no problems, as always. Although Sienna had learned to loathe him with all that she was, she also learned to envy him.

"There's one more," Sora cried out, firing some kind of a lightning at a few Heartless at once, "Remember, Phil told us that there's one more object up at Mount Olympus. We just have to go get it." Sora destroyed another few Heartless within a few moments. _Amazing_, Sienna thought, _we're going to Mount Olympus._

**Author's Note:**__Finally, the story's starting to pick up a little bit! So now they have to go to Mount Olympus! Yay. xD And I just got about a hundred more ideas for this fanfiction, so it will keep getting interesting, I promise you that. Thanks for reading!


	5. There's a Class for This

CHAPTER FIVE:

THERE'S A CLASS FOR THIS

-NOTE-

Well, this will be a fun chapter! You get to see if Sora and the group get the last mechanism for being able to fight Hades, and maybe even a couple of scenes from the Desk of Cora! xD So, since I haven't done this in a while, I think I'll make my characters do my disclaimer. I feel like a slave driver. xD

_Sienna_: I really have better things to do.

_Riku_: Just say it, it's not that difficult.

_Sienna_: Don't be such a jerk and I will! _Sigh_. Lesser doesn't own Kingdom Hearts. If she did, maybe she'd make Riku a little bit nicer to me.

_Riku_: ...Watch it.

-/NOTE-

Sienna finally lunged her keyblade forth and knocked the Large Body Heartless from the back, sending him straight into a plunge of an ice attack from Sora. The Full Body disappeared before them, leaving behind energy and munny. Sienna had to ask herself silently how they managed to get said munny, but she shook it off; she had other, more pressing, details on her mind- like how they planned to get the object that would let them beat Hades from Mount Olympus (which Sienna guessed was very high up.)

"We've got to get out of here," Kairi said nervously, looking around the corridor of the Underworld that they were standing in. Heartless kept appearing as if there was a portal linking them directly from the Dark Realm to the Underworld, like Cora had opened one. "They're not going away. Let's leave and go to Mount Olympus."

Sora nodded his head sharply in agreement, and they all followed him out of the room. On their way out, they even passed by Pain and Panic, who were still trying to figure out the cause of the sudden rockslide in the 'lobby area' of the Underworld. Finally, they ran up the steps to return to the Olympus Coliseum, and Sienna could once again feel the lightness of normal gravity and altitude return to her. _If I thought that was bad,_ she thought to herself pessimistically, _just imagine how bad it will be on Mount Olympus. _Mount _Olympus. As in mountain._ She groaned and rubbed her arm, which was sore from mindlessly swinging her keyblade.

"Phil," Sora shouted, pushing open the door to the Coliseum. Phil was not present in the lobby to the Coliseum at all, and there was a sign that had originally not been in there, taped to the entryway to the actual arena, stating coldly: "Go Away!" "I don't like this," Sora stated after a couple of moments of silence. He rushed to the tape-sign, Kairi, Riku and Sienna close behind him, and ripped it right off as he ran through it.

Sienna was the last to follow him, although she did so gingerly. She had not yet seen any Heartless in the at-sea-level Olympus, but she could not be too sure, especially not after seeing the expression on Sora's face. Absentmindedly, she had wondered what Roxas looked like underneat Sora's body. Sienna had been given a brief explanation when she asked on her first time ever on the Gummi Ship, but she was curious. She wanted to know so much more. More than Riku or Kairi could ever tell her.

"Shit!" Sienna blurted, and then put her hands over her mouth. She didn't like to curse when she could help it. In the middle of the arena was a giant, purplish-looking monster, similar to another thing that she had seen in her Greek Mythology textbook. She hit herself on the top of her head, again wishing that she had paid attention in that godforsaken class. Sienna's thoughts were interrupted, however, as she encountered Phil, stiff and unconscious in the middle of the arena. Standing next to him, waving a sword warningly, was a tall, handsome man with swirly hair and an intense amount of muscle. He was clothed like a gladiator, clad in armor, golden to match what the rest of that world seemed to be made out of.

"Hercules!" Sora called to the man, and he looked over at Sora frantically. He motioned them over with his head, and then just barely managing to roll out of the way to avoid a lunge from the giant, purple dragon. Its bright yellow eyes turned its attention towards Sora, Riku, Kairi and Sienna, so Sienna stayed on her guard, but gulped down whatever was building up in her throat. This didn't look easy.

"Sora, I'm glad your here," Hercules responded in a voice that seemed too low for his roman-coin face, "you have to help me cut off the Hydra's head. If we can cut off enough of its heads I'm sure that we can beat it."

"No problem," Sora responded, "I've done this before. I can't imagine how it came back, though," Sora frowned, "It must have been Hades." Still, he let his Kingdom Key reappear in his hands, and pointed it threateningly at the creature. Sienna was confused; Hercules had said 'heads', but it only had one.

Hercules rolled again, avoiding another lunge from the Hydra, but as its head was down, he took his sword and slammed it down into the Hydra's neck. A sickly, green liquid that Sienna guessed was his blood poured out, and the creature cried out. Sienna calmed down for a moment, thinking that it was dead, but in a burst of energy, two heads grew in the place that the one had been chopped off. _No_, Sienna thought bitterly, _it would never be that easy._

"Sienna!" Kairi cried, at the Hydra's feet, probably trying to weaken its balance, "When one of the heads lunges, get on its neck and run into his back! If you can start attacking his spine, his posture will be off and it will be easier for Hercules and Sora to destroy them!"

Sienna wanted to argue. She wasn't strong and she barely had any experience, one of her first fights ever- with only her second day of ever knowing that these things existed- should not have been with a giant, purple Hydra that looked like it jumped right out of a History textbook. She had no time to complain, though, not even enough time to fix her hair (which had become a godawful habit of hers), as she just barely dodged one of the lunging heads, but managed to hurt her ankle because of it. _I can't let them down,_ Sienna thought weakly, and ignored her pain as she leaped as high as she could onto the Hydra's neck.

The creature threatened to throw her off, swinging its heads like it was going through a seizure, but by some miracle Sienna managed to keep her grip. She ran to the spine when finally she found the end to it- the part she had remembered as that bumpy bony part of the spine underneath the neck in humans (she didn't pay much attention in biology or anatomy, either), and stabbed her keyblade into that section.

The Hydra cried out again, but Sora and Hercules had managed to chop off the other two heads, and then there were four sprouting from this creature. _This is going to end eventually?_ Sienna thought, seriously doubting Hercules's words. Still, she continued to attack the creature on its back, trying her hardest for the rest of them.

xxx

"You took care of them?" Cora asked, looking down from the home that she had made for herself in The World that Never Was. She had been proud; in just one day she managed to unlock three worlds, commanding the Heartless to bring back the eighth princess to her if they ever managed to find her. They hadn't yet, but every place counted.

Hades responded finally, looking back at Cora. Cora could tell that he was wary of her now that she held the Olympus Amulet- he knew more than ever that Cora could destroy him if she wanted. He also knew, however, that she wouldn't, because the only allies she had were Hades, Cruella (who was such a terrible fighter it wasn't even funny, but she did have the mind of a kidnapper), and an army of Heartless. "I sent the Hydra after them," Hades said, trying not to let his fiery hair turn red in frustration with this girl. How old was she? Fifteen, sixteen at the most, and she was calling the shots?

Cora glared daggers at Hades, actually causing him to recoil, "You're kidding me," she stated angrily, "Tell me you're kidding." When Hades didn't respond, she shook her head and rubbed her temples. "You actually revived that monster from its grave to fight when you _could_ have revived a Titan?" She rolled her eyes and looked back out the window, overlooking the portals to the different worlds, the same ones that the Heartless use to get there and back. Much more effecient than a Gummi Ship, she thought, to make a home right where the portal to every world is right in your backyard.

"And what about you, Miss Amazing?" Hades asked hotly **Author's Note: That was a pun. xD**, causing Cora to look back at him with one eyebrow raised, expectant of his words. "What have you been doing this whole time to try and stop these brats from finding the eighth Princess before we do?"

Cora laughed sharply, but looked back outside of her window. A rather fat Heartless made its way to Olympus Coliseum, and she laughed shortly even to herself. They would have a Large Body to deal with when they were done mutilating that pathetic Hydra. To answer Hades's question, she took the amulet around her neck and dangled it between her thumb and her forefinger, and watched Hades's fire hair become red with rage, "I got this," she stated blankly, "and I control the Heartless. Is that enough for you?"

Hades shouted out again, "There's one more, the Olympus Ring, and you know that just as well as I do. Who's stopping them from getting that, huh? I don't want those brats to be able to lay a finger on me," he stated.

"Unfortunately," Cora said quickly, spinning around to meet him in the eyes and standing up. Her height was not a challenge to him at all, and she had to look up at him, but it was enough for him to recoil once more, "I couldn't care less about your safety. I promised you power over all of darkness if you help me find the eighth Princess, but not until we find her. Until then, you're on your own as far as Sora, Riku, Kairi and Sienna are concerned." She then quieted, realizing that Hades wasn't going to argue back, and she sat back in her small, black leather chair. "Sienna..." she said softly. "she has to be the first one to go."

"What's so special about her?" Hades asked, his 'hair' once again turning blue, "She's barely fought before. But for some reason, the Heartless are all over her." He did frown, but he kept staring at Sienna's back- she knew, she could practically feel his eyes burning holes in her shoulderblade.

"Her heart belongs in the Realm of Nothingness. She's special... she can separate Nobodies from their Somebodies, but only if the Somebody's heart hast been taken already. That case usually happens when the Heartless is reunited with its Nobody or its heart," she explained, seeing Hades's rather confused face. He knew a lot about his home, but not a lot about the Heartless and the realms, "I didn't need Riku to tell me that much; it was obvious from the moment I saw her." Cora sighed, "Her heart actually isn't all that strong. I think she was equipped with a keyblade because the Heartless will be all over her. She would make a high-level Heartless and Nobody. We can't let her heart be stolen; we need to kill her."

Hades paused. Cora was thinking many different things. She wondered herself why she just doesn't let the Heartless take her and her Nobody could rot away in the Realm of Nothingness, but the only way out of that realm is to remember your past, and something inside her told her that Sienna would remember and she would leave the Realm, stronger than ever. Cora didn't need that for her plans. "What do we _do_, then?" Hades asked Cora, crossing his arms and leaning against the cold wall. He missed the rocks of the Underworld.

"Get me Axel."

xxx

"We can't get all of those!" Sora shouted to Hercules. There must have been thirty heads already, all of them had forgotten that Sienna was on their back. She had been trying her hardest to get them to faltar, as had Kairi by attacking the legs, but it wasn't doing much now that the Hydra had so many heads. "They're just going to keep multiplying if we don't destroy them all at one time!"

"Heads up, wonderboy!" A woman's voice called from way above them. Sienna finally managed to look up, her hands bleeding from her grip on her keyblade, and her ankle still hurt from when she had dodged the Hydra. Flying above them was an impossibly white horse with _wings_, carrying a girl with long, curly brown hair up in a pony tail. She looked uncomfortable, but it was some kind of an uncomfortable pride.

The pegasus swooped down, and the girl got off. "Meg, thanks!" Hercules said a little too enthusiastically, and then he caughed, "Uh, I mean... cool." His voice was lower that time, and Sienna actually found herself laughing. The winged horse seemed to be relieved to not have that woman on its back, and Sienna could feel a hate-hate relationship between Meg and the horse. Seconds later, Hercules had gotten up in the air, clenching his sword tightly, and cutting all of the Hydra's heads in one clean sweep.

Finally, the Hydra began to fall to the ground, just as Hercules and the winged horse returned. Green blood was flowing in a nasty way from every single head, and Sienna could feel herself get covered in it. Still, she didn't seem to mind at that point that her clothes were being destroyed from the slime, she just cared about holding on to one of the Hydra's scales for dear life as it finally dropped to the ground. She let herself fall off, feeling the pain return to her right ankle, which she had twisted when she dodged the creature.

"Ow," she muttered, sitting on the floor and rubbing her ankle.

"Here," Sora called, running from where he had been standing. He kneeled down next to Sienna, keyblade in hand. For a moment, Sienna twitched uncomfortably, as she thought he was going to amputate her foot off. Instead, Sora said, "Cura," and a whitish light appeared from the top of his keyblade. It pointed itself at Sienna's body as a whole, and she could feel her ankle numb itself up and twist back right. It didn't hurt anymore, but it was a sickening sight to see her twisted ankle get back to normal. Still, she looked up at Sora with appreciation.

"Thanks," Sienna smiled at Sora, and saw his surprised face give a warm smile back.

"No problem," Sora laughed, "I should teach you that one, you get hurt a lot."

For a moment, Sora and Sienna just looked at each other in the eyes. Sienna couldn't help but to think how much more amazing Sora's were than her own, a bright, beautiful blue. Sienna couldn't even tell what color hers were exactly, sometimes they looked like a gray, and other times they looked more brown than blue or vice-versa. Both of their smiles calmed down when they looked at each other.

"A-hem," Kairi coughed, and Sienna looked up at her, embarrassed. This was probably an awkward moment for her, she realized; she cared about Sora a lot. _What am I thinking?_ Sienna asked herself angrily, not taking Sora's hand when he offered it to her, and instead pushing herself up, and apologizing to Sora apologetically.

"Thanks again," she said as nice as she could manage without getting Kairi angry. Hastily, she turned her attention to Hercules, who had ran up to Sora to thank him for everything. _He should be_, Sienna thought, _we did a lot._

"Is there anything I can repay you guys with?" Hercules asked, but then looked around at Sienna and the others, frowning, "What happened to the other heroes? Donald and Goofy?" he asked, concerned.

"We're going to meet up with them later," Sora reassured him, but Sienna wasn't too sure about how that was going to work out; they didn't have much luck seeing any trace of them so far, but then again, she had no idea what they looked like. "Listen, Hercules, we need to get something like the Olympus Stone from Mount Olympus. It's-"

"Something like this?" Hercules asked, and pulled a small, golden ring out of his pocket. Sienna's mouth gaped open; how did a tiny ring like that stay in his pocket during the whole fight? "Phil told me that you probably wouldn't get the Olympus Amulet, so he sent me to go get the ring in the meantime. I came back to give it to him so he could hand it over to you, but the Hydra had attacked... Phil!" Hercules forgot completely about the satyr lying unconscious by the beheaded beast. He ran up to Phil, and Sora followed him up, followed soon after by Riku, Kairi, and Sienna, all equally worried.

Finally, after a few moments of sitting by him, waiting for some kind of reaction, Phil mumbled, "Kid... Herc, is that you?" Phil asked in a soft tone, reaching out as if he were trying to grab something out of the heavens.

"Yeah, Phil, it's me," Hercules began, "are you alright?"

"Herc... what you did was... was..." Hercules's eyes widened in anticipation and fear of Phil's death, so he leaned in forward. Abruptly, the satyr shot up from where he had been lying, unhurt in any way, shape, or form, and hes tarted making insane hand motions, "Epic! The epitome of hero! The way the damsel rode down with the winged steed, and you took him and beheaded the beast, Herc, it was amazing!"

Everyone began laughing. Even Sienna, usually humorless, let out a few low chuckles before she did the same thing: burst out in it. Nothing had been funny or remotely amusing since she had been pulled into that journey two days before, so she clung to the humor that the satyr had brought them. Finally, when the laughing died down, Sora put the ring on his ring finger and thanked Hercules, "We'll try our best to get the eighth Princess back. Then we don't have to worry about the Door to Darkness opening, or Kingdom Hearts."

"We're counting on ya, kid!" Phil waved good-bye along with Hercules and Megara as the four of them made their way back to the Gummi Ship. There was something unrecognizable in Riku's face, like a mixture of disappointment and pride. Sienna wanted to ask him what was wrong, but she forgot for a moment that she wasn't on best terms with Riku. She let her hand that had gone up to go on his shoulder fall back to her side, and she shoved them in her pockets. _Yuck_, she thought to herself, pulling them back out, wanting to retch at the sight. There was some of that green guck in her pockets, as well.

xxx

They had all made it back to Hollow Bastion, hoping to spend the night back in the Restoration Committee's headquarters. The world that they were headed for next, which was some odd undersea world that Sienna couldn't make heads or tails of, was going to have to wait until the next day. They hadn't realized that they spent the entire day at the Olympus world until they had left and checked the time.

Again, without fighting her insomnia, Sienna waited up, laying on the floor this time, giving Kairi a turn on the couch. This time, before Sora's telltale snoring had even began, she could hear the shifting from the couch perpendicular from Kairi's. Riku was getting up again, leaving somewhere like the night before. Sienna sighed; she knew that Riku's bags under his eyes were just going to get worse. Although, she was sure by the end of the day that he hadn't left the house because he 'heard something'. He was acting way too odd for that. By the time Sora finally started snoring, she pushed herself up to her knees.

"Roxas," she whispered softly, and touched Sora's hand lightly.

Sure enough, big, blue eyes shot open, and Sora's body- under Roxas's control- pushed itself up into a sitting position. He gave a light smile to Sienna, one that was so unlike Sora's smile that it was scary. Roxas's was small and sweet, soft but sturdy.

"Hey, Sienna," he whispered back happily.

"You ready?" Sienna asked, and Roxas nodded. She stood up, and cupped two hands around Sora's. As she could feel herself mentally digging deeper into his hands, she suddenly felt the warm inside of the cool, the soft hands of Roxas. Once she got a good grip on them, she pulled back in the way that felt right, and after a few moments of refusing to look as she did so, she felt the pressure stop.

Sienna looked down at Sora. He was back on the floor, zonked out, his head resting comfortably on his pillow. He smacked his lips a few times and squinted, but then seemed to find comfort in the new position he took. Standing in front of Sienna, she saw, was a boy with wild honey-colored on his head and bright cobalt eyes. He was wearing quite the mix of black and white, including odd rings and a wristband. _He's a Nobody?_ Sienna thought, perplexed, _He looks so... human._

"Thank you, Sienna," Roxas spoke as quietly as he could. For a moment, he was translucent, but within seconds, he seemed to fill up everything that was appearing behind him with depth and color, and she was sure that he had a real body again. Sienna could never comprehend how things like that worked, but she wanted to learn. Smiling, although having no clue what she was doing, she reached out a hand and touched Roxas's cheek. Holding it there for a while, she realized she must have looked awkward, so she began to pull it back, but Roxas surprised her. He cupped his hand over hers, and held her hand there for an extra second before letting it fall down to her waist.

Sienna felt the color rush to her cheeks, so she looked the other way. "Y-you wanted to come out to help us find the eighth Princess, right?" Sienna asked. She heard Roxas's 'yes', but didn't want to look back, embarrassed, "Should I pull... Naminé out of Kairi?" Sienna asked, digging back in her memory to try and recall the name of the Nobody that resided within Kairi from her and Riku's stories.

She looked back at Roxas, whose face turned back to neutral after smiling, and nodded hastily, "Yeah," he whispered. Sienna walked over to Kairi, and took her hand, trying to ignore her slight shifting in her sleep. She finally felt Naminé inside of her, but she didn't feel much different than Kairi, as opposed to Roxas and Sora, who felt like two different people. With a couple of small tugs, she pulled Naminé out.

Naminé was beautiful, to say the least, and Sienna's heart sank at the sight of her. She had medium-long platinum blond hair, exremely close to Sienna's own color, except hers was almost perfectly straight. Her eyes were also a blue, but they were more violet than the cobalt ones of Roxas, almost like an indigo. She was exactly Sienna's height, and she was wearing a pretty, white sun dress. Confused, she looked around the room, and then at Sienna, and then Roxas. She smiled and nodded; she knew what was going on.

"Thank you," Naminé said, and it took Sienna a couple of moments to realize that Naminé was talking to her, "for bringing me out. I want to help you." Her voice was soft and airy, but still, Sienna couldn't help the pang of jealousy that went up her. Not only did she have the looks of one of the popular girls back at her old school, but she had the manners of the 'ideal young lady' that mothers always wanted. Not only that, but she and Roxas had a thing for each other, and she had just remembered.

Just when Sienna thought that things were going right. "Don't mention it," she said, trying not to look into Naminé's eyes, "Just-" Suddenly, Sienna heard a crash outside. Naminé and Roxas heard it as well, and Sienna was finally forced to rip her focus from the couch in which she had been staring at in an effort to avoid Naminé's stare. Roxas, however, looked at Sora and Kairi, the only ones still in the room asleep.

"They're heavy sleepers," Roxas remarked, although he didn't move, he had smiled. Afterwards, though, his blue orbs moved until they idly rested on the open couch, the one where Riku should have been lying. Sienna heard the stories of Roxas and Riku and their fights, but hopefully he wouldn't mind now that he knows Roxas is benevolent. "I think that was Riku," he said, quickly, and they both rushed out the door, which was, thankfully, extremely close, and tried to close it gingerly.

Sure enough, Sienna, Naminé and Roxas found themselves staring at Riku and a tall man with fiery red hair, poking out in odd directions. He had two strange markings under his eyes, which were a kind of green that Sienna had not seen before in her life. Then again, she never really noticed those things until she had begun her journey with Sora, Riku, and Kairi. He was wearing an all-black suit with a hood, which was currently down, and carrying two spinning weapons called chakrams.

"Well, she sent _me_. If you'll pipe down for a moment, I'll tell you..." The tall man seemed to have noticed Sienna and the two others, and he completely disregarded Riku for a moment and walked over to Roxas. He pulled Roxas into something unexpected: an embrace. Roxas hugged him back. When they pulled away, the man smiled.

"Roxas, man, I've missed you." His grin just grew. Something told Sienna that these two were old friends.

"I missed you, too, Axel."

**Author's Note:** Aaaandddd... we're good! xD So, I hope you liked that Axel came back, because I know that I missed him like crazy. And, two updates in one day, which is very uncharacteristic of me, but whatever. xD Hope you enjoyed, please review!


	6. The Treble

CHAPTER SIX:

THE TREBLE

-NOTE-

Ah, chapter six. :3 So, if you haven't noticed somebody getting a little suspicious by now, you might want to go back and re-read and pick up on some clues. But this is me giving you clues because I luff yew. ;3 Aside from that, now Naminé and Roxas are on the journey! Yay! I'm sure things will be pretty fun with them, but I guess I'll find out the more I write? xD I have to totally plan better. Anyway, please read and review!

-/NOTE-

"Wait," Sienna began, slightly confused, but in a good way because it meant that she remembered something Cora had said. Roxas and Axel turned to look at her strangely, but Naminé seemed more preoccupied with her regained sensations- such as touching, seeing, and smelling what she wanted. Sienna gulped and continued, "Cora told us that Hades brought you back to life," she said, pointing at Axel, "because you were strong and would be able to help her out to find the eighth princess."

Roxas cocked an eyebrow up and looked at Axel expectantly, who was scanning the area nervously. Finally, he bent down slightly to reach Sienna's height, and whispered into her ear, "I went along with her to work as a spy. I don't know all that much yet, but when I do you can be sure that you'll know."

"Amazing," Riku said, with no real excitement as he walked up to Sienna, Roxas, Naminé and Axel, but he was smiling. "How are Roxas and Naminé here?" He asked, not exactly giving Roxas a _third_ glance, but genuinely interested nonetheless.

Sienna shook her head, "I guess that's why the Heartless were after me," Sienna stated, "I just kind of... reached into Sora and Kairi, and Roxas and Naminé came out." She paused, "But just touching Sora's bare skin made Roxas kind of take over his body. But now they're out; they want to help us find the eighth princess." All the while, Riku was totally silent, nodding every now and then. Expecting, maybe wanting, a reaction, Sienna added, "isn't that great?"

Riku nodded. "It's-" He was interrupted by a soft whistle, holding one, quivering note. His head snapped in the direction in which he heard the whistle, and turned his entire body towards it. It sounded again, genuinely confusing the rest of them. Sienna made her way to walk up to Riku, but he walked a few paces forward, cutting her off.

"Should we go find out what's doing that?" Naminé asked kindly, her eyes staring into the distance, "Someone might be in trouble." She paused, "It might be the eighth Princess. Wouldn't you say so?"

Riku was quite short a moment later, "No," he said quickly, "I'll go check. You talk to Axel a little more, get acquainted." He would hear no more arguments or offers from them; in moments, he had rushed off to the source of the whistle. Sienna frowned, not sure that Riku was right to be so short with Naminé. Still, she couldn't help but to smile as she watched Axel, Naminé and Roxas all talk together.

And she couldn't help but to frown, either.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi had belonged together. They were together since they were little kids; they braved so much together, including leaving Destiny Islands only to return based on pure love and friendship. Roxas, Axel and Naminé belonged together, all three of them Nobodies that were all hurt, but still helped the light side in the end. One of them had even died for it, reborn now thanks to the enemy. Still, everyone had a place, even as the enemy. Sienna still didn't have a place; she had done her job. What was she good for now?

She sat down on the curb and put her head in her arms as she watched the three of them laugh together. It was getting late, she could tell, but she was nowhere near falling asleep. She almost missed the feeling of her keyblade in her hand, the feeling that she was actually, in some way, useful for everybody. _It's all cosmetics,_ she thought, _if you have a crappy color of eyeshadow, try it on once or twice. If it doesn't work, throw it away or give it away. You don't want to wear something that's going to make you look terrible._ She was comparing herself to eyeshadow, but that was the only way she could compare herself at all. _Why am I so useless?_ Sienna asked herself, trying hard not to pity herself. Her clothes had been washed when they arrived, so she felt clean and beautiful as always, but somehow this wasn't enough to make her feel worth it anymore.

"She sent me down here to try to 'take care' of you," Axel began, and caught Sienna's attention. He looked up at the sky and frowned, though, "I'll just have to say that you guys left too fast and I wasn't sure where you went."

"Hey," Sienna finally started, sitting up. She wanted to contribute in some way; she was sick of being useless. Even if it meant asking a question, getting answers would make her feel better, and it would help the group. Axel gave her his attention, "Cora knew all this crap about us the last time we faced her. How do you think she got all of that information?" Cora looked at Axel, who grimaced in concentration.

"Honestly, kid, I want to say that Cora's just smart, which she is. She's got this whole thing pretty much planned out, which is why I want to help you. She's either got a spy following you somewhere, or she's been watching you all on her own." Axel laughed at the first one along with Sienna, but she couldn't help but to think. At the mention of the last, she looked behind her shoulders, up on top of buildings, anywhere someone could be hiding. The possibility of someone else giving Cora this information never crossed her mind, but now that it had, it was abusing it like a five year old on a crosswalk.

After a moment, Riku returned, his arms crossed. As Sienna and the others looked over at him, he just shook his head somberly, "I couldn't find anything," he admitted, shrugging, "it was probably just some kid. Sora and I used to whistle a lot when we were younger, too." The answer made sense; Riku didn't look like he had broken a sweat. He was flushed, however, his cheeks reddened. It was probably the wind; it was much chillier in Hollow Bastion during the night than it was during the day.

"I need to get back," Axel continued quietly, "Cora's gonna wonder what's been takin' me. I'll give you an update next time I get the chance," he winked at Riku, who clenched his fists. They were probably having an argument when Axel came, Sienna had decided. Axel seemed like one of those people who had the annoying ability to stay totally calm in an argument, kind of like what Sienna had perfected at her old school. Axel disappeared through a dark portal which materialated out of nothing, and they made their way back inside.

Riku gruffly threw himself back on the couch, almost waking Kairi up. "I'm not sleepy," Sienna admitted to Roxas and Naminé. Both of them shook their heads. Apparently, neither were they, "I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Sora and Kairi in the morning."

xxx

Sienna finally found where she belonged.

It should have been that easy, and she realized that, but it did.

When Riku and Kairi had told her stories, they had barely touched on the Nobodies, but Roxas and Naminé were able to tell her exactly what it was like to be one. Exactly what it was like to feel without a heart, to have control over the lesser Nobodies, to grow along with their Somebodies but never have to do anything as far as the actual 'growing up' was concerned. Naminé and Roxas were so easy to talk to, and they treated Sienna like a friend, almost as close as they had been to Axel. She felt wanted.

But the way that Naminé was always looking at Roxas, and vice-versa, Sienna wasn't sure exactly what it is that _she_ wanted.

And now, she was pacing in front of Sora and Kairi with their Nobodies standing behind her, smiling slightly and tired from lack of sleep (although Sienna was much too used to it), and she finally slowed to a stop and looked at them, finally understanding what she had to say. "I know I should have told you earlier," she stated to the keyblade wielders, "but one night, I woke up and saw something on Sora. I went to brush it off, and he woke up as Roxas. I can... I think... make Nobodies take over their Somebodies. If they have Nobodies living within them. And then, Roxas asked me to pull him out, but you were waking up. So we waited until last night. They want to help us find the eighth Princess."

Sora smiled, apparently pleased with this explanation, "Sounds good to me!" Sora hopped off of the couch with blind determination, and Kairi smiled, a little less thrilled, but not upset with the situation. After all, a couple more companions, one of which helped save Kairi from a prison not too long ago, couldn't be a bad idea.

"If anyone I know from the other worlds asks," Sora started, looking at his honey-blond twin, "you're my brother." He smiled, "We can't go around explaining the concept of Nobodies to every living per- er- anything we come across. And you're Kairi's sister," he said, looking at Naminé. It was hard to believe that he really didn't remember anything from his experiences at Castle Oblivion, but from the look on Naminé's face, she remembered everything. She nodded slowly, smiling.

"Alright, then, Atlantica!" Sora exclaimed happily. Then, he frowned. "I don't know how we're supposed to be able to survive underwater without Donald's magic turning us into merpeople, though," he considered carefully for a moment, Sienna genuinely confused, and then looked at Roxas and Naminé. "Naminé, you can do some interesting stuff with memory, do you think you can alter forms at all?"

Naminé nodded, "It shouldn't be that hard."

Sora doubled back, reaching for the door, not even bothering to call for a good-bye to Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, Tifa, Cid, and especially not Merlin, as they were all in a big hurry. He paused at the door, "Let's go, then. We've got to find the eighth Princess before the Heartless or Cora do." He pushed open the door.

"Wait," Sienna said, and then he paused. _For once_, she thought lightly, _I used 'wait' in the right context. Go me._ She gulped and continued, all eyes on her again, "Since we've got more people now, wouldn't it make more sense if we split up?" Nobody answered her. "Like, into groups of three. The one with the Gummi Ship could drop off and pick up the one without. Then we'd have an advantage over Cora by being able to cover more space."

Sora nodded, "Actually, I think that's pretty smart." He looked at the groups and considered silently, before he spoke, "Roxas, Riku and Sienna can be together, and I'll be with Naminé and Kairi." _Yeah, very careful consideration,_ Sienna thought, _he forgot the tiny little fact that Roxas and Riku aren't exactly on best terms with each other. Or Riku and I, for that matter. Maybe Riku just doesn't like people._ "Naminé, Kairi and I will go to Atlantis because I already know how to swim down there, and Naminé's got the magic ability to change us into merpeople. Sounds good to me."

Riku grinned, "You just want to see them in their bras."

Sora shrugged, "I want to see them _without_ their bras, but with them is fine, too." His shoulder was hit by Kairi, who was laughing with the rest of them, but trying to show that she was angry towards him. "And Sienna, Roxas and Riku can go to Twilight Town," he continued a little more softly, "I thought you might want to, Roxas."

Roxas nodded. It was amazing how similar they looked- they had the same eyes, almost the same face, but their hair and fashion sense was completely different, meaning Sora didn't have one. _Stop_, Sienna told herself angrily, _you're going to stop judging people by what they're wearing. You're going to be useful_.

"You okay?" Roxas's voice came, and he put a hand on her shoulder. Sienna snapped back into reality, and she could feel heat filling her face. Looking over at him, he took his hand off of her shoulder and smiled. "You looked like you were concentrating really hard on something. Something on your mind?"

Sienna was grinning a little, but she could see Naminé turning around and walking the other direction in her peripherals (Peripherals, what an amazing word, Sienna thought, maybe being around Riku was teaching her something). "I'm okay," she responded softly, "just thinking if my plan was dumb or not, I guess."

When Roxas smiled, her heart melted. Sienna had gone out with a lot of guys before in her school (thus earning her a title for a year as the school slut, even though she had never done anything). They were always the same people; buzzcut hair, football/basketball/baseball player (depending on the season), and the same conversation; Sport, how are you, sport, sport, we should go out again this week, sport, sport, sport, girl stuff? Nah. Sport. But Roxas was different. He was an enigma (another interesting word courtesy of Riku), an anomaly, and he always had something new to say.

_No,_ Sienna scolded herself. As she walked out the door, however, she tripped on the edge. As she caught herself, she shot Roxas, who was standing behind her, an apologetic smile. "I'm falling too much today." _Way to be metaphorical._

Roxas laughed, "You're falling just enough."

xxx

The train station was large and modern. The entire thing looked just like where Sienna used to live, except she lived in a slightly less colorful place. The city, she remembered, had been so much more different than the tiny little Destiny Islands, warm and happy, like Hawaii on moonshine. The city had been giant and exciting, somebody new shot every day. It would seem like a gruesome thought, but Sienna relatively missed it, having been gone from the city for a few days already.

Then again, she had also been gone from her parents. For the first time in those three days, she wondered if her parents were doing alright. She knew that her world had been swallowed up, and that they very well might be Heartless by now. She bit back a tear and shook her head, looking at the ground. Roxas knew the way out of the Train Station, so she and Riku simply blindly followed him out. Sienna was barely conscious in her actions at all; he could be leading them into a pit of snakes for all she knew.

When they arrived outside, Riku stopped them, obviously a little impatient, and probably unnerved by the lack of Heartless. Then again, the world seemed fully-functioning and capable ever since the Restoration Committee had installed a self-defense system in Twilight Town and Traverse Town, as well. **Author's Note:** **Just a little extra I came up with; it seemed fitting. It's also easier for Roxas, Sienna, and Riku. xD** "Where's the keyhole to this place?" he asked, briefly scanning the area.

Roxas sighed, "Probably in the mansion, but I wouldn't know. Cora made new ones, remember?" He tried to ask this patiently, and Sienna could tell, but she finally found herself hating herself for not suggesting three groups of twos; they would cover more distance, and there would be less of a chance for Riku and her or Riku and Roxas to be paired together. But there would also have been less of a chance of her and Roxas being paired together, too, so she kept her mouth shut.

"I know she did," Riku said hotly, following Roxas, who was leading them down an oddly narrow street until they emerged into a busy Commons with a small train running around it. "I probably know more than you do."

**Author's Note: **I know it was short, but I want to go do something else right now? xD And I thought it was a good place to leave off. Anyway, review please, even though it seems I have only one reviewer out of the only two that do review left. Dx


	7. Heartache Temporary

CHAPTER SEVEN:

HEARTACHE TEMPORARY

-NOTE-

Get ready for some odd/ridiculous humor sometime in the Atlantis scenes... Ariel gets jealous easily. xD Because of that, expect serious OOC on her part. We also get to go through a little bit through Roxas's point of view! That's where my third person unlimited writing strategy finally comes into play. xD Oh, also, a new character will be introduced in this! ;D And I want to thank Igor Lollipop for her constant reviews and The Cynically Happy Peon for her nice review on the last chapter! So please enjoy this one! Oh, and r and r please. xD

-/NOTE-

"Riku," Sienna finally started, her stomach doing cartwheels. One of her 'new-life' resolutions was to be more confident, branch out beyond her cosmotology. Even if it meant being a jerk, she would do it, "why do you have to be such an ass to Roxas? And to me, for that matter. I mean, the first day, you were all cool to me, and now you, like, just treat me like I'm not a member of this team. Why?"

Something burned in Riku's eyes for a moment, and they stopped on their trail to the mansion. Sienna backed up a pace, sure that Riku would lash out in frustration, but instead, his face calmed into one that almost seemed _sorry_, and he began to rub his temples. "It's stressful," he finally admitted, "Once you've been in the darkness, it changes you. When I was going home to Destiny Islands with Sora, I thought everything would be alright. Every day, the darkness has been growing. I can feel it."

_This is amazing,_ Sienna thought, not realizing that her mouth was hanging open in achievement, _but I still feel like he's hiding something. Either way, after this confession, he can't be cold to me anymore. I can't say anything about Roxas, though._ Still, it was progress. Sienna shook her head and smiled, "We'll beat Cora and the others. You won't have to worry about that anymore."

Something made Riku grimace, and he shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, Sienna. Darkness is just as eternal as light. It never really goes away. There are some worlds still being consumed by darkness, and others consumed by too much light. I just miss the way I was before the darkness. That's all." He paused, and looked at Roxas.

"He's right, you know," Roxas said, moving a few paces forward, obviously expecting Sienna and Riku to follow. They did, and they came up to some odd hole-in-the-wall. "You can't ever totally escape the darkness. But never being consumed by it does help. It also helps if you don't have a heart." He shrugged, and Sienna gave him a sad smile that he couldn't see, as he turned back to the direction they were heading in.

When they crawled through the hole, Sienna gasped. The scenery before them was a creepy kind of beautiful, something that belonged in a Stephen King novel. It was a huge forest, light poking out beautifully from above them, little dapples of the leaves creating a pattern from the sunlight hitting the grass. Sienna wished that she could have taken it in more, but she was distracted by her keyblade appearing in her hand as they walked through. "How does this work?" Sienna asked, and Riku glanced back at her, followed shortly after by Roxas. "The keyblade coming in the hand thing."

"It's when you want it to, when you're in danger, or when you're really anxious, mostly. It's kind of hard to tell." Riku replied. She could tell that he was surpressing some annoyance, but hopefully he would soon get over that. Roxas wasn't saying a word; he probably couldn't answer because he had never really _felt_ what he needed to. He had inherited his ability to wield a keyblade straight from Sora. Sienna had never thought of this, but because Kairi could wield a keyblade, wouldn't that make Naminé a keyblade wielder, as well?

Sienna nodded. "Does it have a name?" She asked. She had often heard of the names that their keyblades had; Sora's was the Kingdom Key, but it really depended on what keychain he had on, he was constantly switching them. Riku's was Way to Dawn, and for a good reason, as he had used it to help him out of the darkness, and Roxas had Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Kairi wielded the Destiny Blade **Author's Note:** **That was totally made up. They really need to come up with a name for that now. Dx;** , but what was hers? She couldn't be too sure, so she awaited her answer feverishly.

It was Roxas who answered this time, "I saw it a couple of times in Xemnas's old books. I was surprised when you had it, but I thought maybe it was a look-a-like until I saw the keychain." He stopped, and pointed at the keychain. It was the symbol of the Nobodies. Sienna had never noticed it before Roxas pointed it out, but she supposed that being a Nobody, he had an eye for those things. "It's called the Origins of Nothing. It represents the Realm of Nothingness, and how the bearer would eventually return there."

Sienna gulped, the forest that they were standing in suddenly becoming a little too dark and malicious for her own mental safety, "So, you're saying that someday I'll end up in the Realm of Nothingness?"

Roxas frowned, "No... no." He put his hand on Sienna's, calming her down a bit. It was obvious, though, that she had calmed down, because her keyblade had disappeared from her hands into whatever realm it waited for her in. She felt her cheeks heat up, and picked a spot on the ground to look at. "It's just an old legend," he finished, "besides, it said the bearer returns to the Realm of Nothingness. How could you return to someplace you've never been before?" He smiled encouragingly.

"Isn't everything born out of both light, darkness, _and_ nothingness?" Riku asked boredly, guessing the rest of the way to the mansion, obviously uninterested in Sienna's interest in her own keyblade. Roxas sighed heavily.

"Well, yeah. But she's not going anywhere." Roxas finished, his tone leaving no room for debate, although it was not as if Riku had planned on persuing the argument further. Finally, they reached a clearing, and found themselves in front of a set of open gates with a broken lock on the front. "Someone broke the lock," Roxas stated, as if it wasn't completely obvious. Still, Sienna didn't seem to mind as she walked through, following Roxas and Riku close behind.

xxx

Sora found himself in his second form of a merman, the fins and bare chest in the ocean becoming almost as routine to him as his constant swimming at the ocean back at Destiny Islands. Kairi was used to swimming, too, he knew that much, and watching her swim around in pink fins was pretty natural-looking as well. Naminé was yellow, and Sora wondered momentarily if it had anything to do with her hair. It was probably completely random.

"Get _away_ from me!" A familiar voice called from farther down in the ocean. Within seconds, Sora found the telltale green blur of his old friend, Ariel, swimming in a frenzy, followed by something painstakingly large. He momentarily noticed Flounder swimming closely next to her (or clinging onto her arm and making it more difficult to swim for Ariel, it all depends on your definition of 'swimming'). Without even having to be asked, Sora called upon the Kingdom Key, which was equipped with the Crabclaw keychain to fit the situation, and swam full-speed towards the giant Heartless. Kairi and Naminé followed soon after, determined to help him destroy whatever was threatening Ariel.

Sora stopped when he finally reached the creature. He had usually known whales to be relatively benevolent creatures, but this one had some kind of a twinge in his eye that gave him more of the look of an overgrown shark. The second it noticed Sora, it lunged forward, head-first, but Sora held out his keyblade. He managed to knock the Heartless to the left slightly, but he had still dealt a blow on Sora, causing him to recoil a few feet.

Kairi took this chance to call upon her Blade of Destiny and lunge it towards the Heartless, which managed to flip out of the way and bite out at her (as uncharacteristic of a move as that would be for a whale), but she evaded the attack and swiped at it with her keyblade. Finally, the whale managed to get a hit at her, sending her flying, but it gave Sora enough time to get up and stab it where its heart would be, and it disappeared into the ocean.

"Phew," Sora said, and then he looked over at Naminé, who was standing (or floating) awkwardly, a few feet away. "Why didn't you help us fight?" Sora asked her, trying to be as patient as possible, but that Heartless was a strong one. It was no wonder that Ariel couldn't defeat it on her own; she wasn't _that_ strong.

Naminé shook her head. "I don't have a weapon."

Suddenly, the both of them were confused. "What about a keyblade?" Kairi asked calmly, "Roxas got one from Sora."

Naminé shook her head. "You were only able to wield a keyblade once you found the strength in your heart to go after Sora and Riku. I was created before that time. The ability to wield one wasn't passed down to me." She smiled apologetically, "But I still have some of my powers, and I could probably call upon some Nobodies. At least, the ones that Cora, Hades, and Cruella aren't using. I think they're mostly using the Heartless."

Sora was surprised, but pleasantly. "Nobodies? On our side? That would be different." He then turned to Ariel, who was talking excitedly with Flounder, no doubt recounting the amazing chase scene that they must have come just in time to see end. "Are you alright, Ariel?" Sora asked, swimming up to his old friend.

"We're fine, Sora," Ariel responded cheerfully, her face somewhat flustered, "thank you! Who are your friends?" Ariel asked, confusedly. Sora had forgotten that the mermaid had never met Kairi or Naminé before. He introduced them quickly, and asked Ariel if she had seen a keyhole anywhere. Not to his surprise, she shook her head. No, if she knew where the keyhole was, that would make the chapter too short.

"Do you know anything about an eighth Princess of Heart?" Sora asked Ariel, but soon found the mistake in his words. In moments, Ariel's face had contorted into an odd mixture of madness and fury, and Sora swam backwards slightly.

"Oh, there's _another_ Princess of Heart?" she asked sweetly, "And I wouldn't suppose that it's Ariel, no, it's never Ariel. Ariel, Princess of Atlantica, always a Disney Princess but never a Princess of Heart!" Her fury began to grow, "What, is it because I have _flippers?_!" She pointed at the fins at the end of her body, "Oh, sure, let's discriminate against the half-fish! She can't walk, she can't even survive without _sulfuric water!_ Let's humor her, let's make her a Disney Princess, but when it comes to being a Princess of Heart, let's leave the goddamn fish in the water! Yup, sounds like a plan!" The sweetness, by then, had totally disappeared from Ariel's voice, and she was inches from Sora's face, her stance full of fury.

Sora laughed nervously, and backed up as well as he could, before he finally responded, "Well, we should get going then!" He turned towards Kairi and Naminé, watching the scene in horror, discomfort and fright, giving them a very meaningful look. They nodded, and all three of them darted away, Naminé lagging slightly as she didn't have much practice swimming, but nevertheless, Ariel did not follow them.

Kairi sighed. "She's got some anger issues." Naminé nodded in agreement, but said nothing. Sora, however, sighed and shook his head.

"She wasn't usually like that. I guess it's just a sensitive topic for her." He looked around, "It's a big city under here," he muttered, "I want to start at Ariel's place, but that's where the last keyhole was. I don't think Cora would be stupid enough to put it right next to the old one. We should try the palace."

xxx

"Nothing," Roxas said bitterly, after his fourth roundabout through the mansion, searching the place up and down, even entering rooms that he had never dared enter, even back when his friends used to hang out around there. He never got to thank Naminé for helping him keep both his memories of Organization XIII and of his life at Twilight Town, but he knew that it was probably nothing to thank on her part; she always tended to do things just for the well-being of others; that was one of her endearing qualities that she had gained after she realized the damage of some of her selfishness in Castle Oblivion. No matter what, however, Roxas couldn't stop being around her. It was like a drug.

"Where else could we look?" another voice chimed in. And then there was Sienna. Roxas had only known her for so long, but already he thought that the sun shone out of her ass. She was one of those perfect girls from his school at Twilight Town that he was always too intimidated by their looks to talk to them, but always wanted to. Except Sienna was ten times more than that. He could slowly see the diamond shining beneath the rough, letting her true self show and shedding away her old skin. She knew that she was a leader, not the follower that she had lived her urban life as. She could go so much farther than the cosmotology she had mentioned to himself and Naminé, and Roxas knew that. Something about her made Roxas want to stay, it made him want to be with her forever.

Roxas shook his head, trying to shake away the feeling of ambivalence. He didn't know what he wanted. That was one of his _less than_ endearing qualities. Finally, realizing he probably looked pretty stupid just staring at Sienna, he answered her question, "There are a lot of places." he responded, as they finally climbed out of the hole-in-the-wall and back into the Tram Commons, "we should find Hayner, Pence and Olette and see if they know anything."

Finally, Roxas caught a figure in the distance. "Olette!" he called out, and the curly brown-haired girl spun around, looking around for someone she knew, confused. Finally, her eyes settled on Roxas. Roxas smiled at her, but she gave an awkward grin back; he forgot. In the real world, Roxas had never met Olette. Instead, he walked up to her, Riku and Sienna following close behind, awaiting.

"Hi," Olette started, smiling politely, "Um, do I know you?"

Roxas was crestfallen, his best friend not remembering him, but then again, he was lucky enough to have been able to materialize into a human form thanks to Sienna. He started, remembering what Sora had told him, "I'm Sora's brother. Roxas."

Olette smiled, "Oh, Sora, how's he been lately?" Before she could await an answer, she screwed up her face in concentration. "I can't place it, but I feel like I've heard your name before." She shook her head, and smiled at them. "Anyway, what's up?"

"Have you seen a keyhole anywhere around here? Or maybe a girl that looks kind of suspicious?" Roxas asked, referring to the eighth Princess of Heart. He doubted that Olette would know anything much about the Princesses of Heart or Cora and her making new keyholes, but it was worth a shot to ask her if she'd seen anything out of the ordinary.

Olette frowned somewhat in concentration and confusion. "Keyholes? None except the ones on doors. But a suspicious girl? Well, I saw a newcomer to the town a few moments ago. When I saw you three, I thought that maybe there was a convention or a lot of visitors. The other one I just saw over by the usua--, I mean, the back alley."

_The usual spot,_ Roxas thought, and nodded. "Thanks, I really appreciate it." He walked away hurriedly, Sienna and Riku following behind. "So, there was a girl over by the Usual Spot," Roxas told Sienna and Riku as if they couldn't hear Olette. His heart- or lack thereof- began to race, and he got the small amount of determination that Sora left with him. They entered the alley, and Roxas's walking turned into a slow run, "We might actually find the eighth Princess of Heart before Cora does!"

"Actually, it looks like she's nowhere to be found in this town," Cora's voice sounded among them. Roxas had been trapped in Sora's body long enough to know what Cora sounded and looked like, and he stopped running, Riku and Sienna slightly bumping into them. They didn't even bother to apologize to each other. Instead, Oathkeeper and Oblivion materialized into Roxas's hands and Origins of Nothing appeared in Sienna's. With slight hesitation, Way to Dawn made itself present in Riku's hand."

Cora looked down at Riku amused, and then Sienna and Roxas. "What happened?" she asked, dully. This time, she wasn't above them in any way, shape, or form, but leaning against the wall next to the entrance of the Usual Spot. "Sora, Kairi, and Naminé dump you three? Odd, it should be the other way 'round. Sora's a pretty good fighter and Kairi's not bad for lacking experience, but Naminé's never really fought at all, has she?" Cora seemed to be musing this all to herself, until she looked up at Roxas and Riku. Roxas never realized it, but she did look a lot shorter standing on sea level. Although, she was an inch taller than Sienna. "But you three. Roxas, an experienced Nobody. I wouldn't be surprised if you could call upon Nobodies wielding Keyblades. And Sienna, natural abilities still locked up, but trust me, they're there. And Riku." She smirked now, "Your walk through the darkness gave you your strength, didn't it?" She looked at him as if she had known Riku for much longer than Roxas and Sienna had known her.

"How do you know all this?" Sienna finally asked, causing Roxas to turn his head toward her. Her hand was trembling from her tight grip on the keyblade, but she looked at her like a lioness looked at her prey, not backing down, watching every move. "How did you even know our _names_? Do you have someone spying on us?"

"Heartless," Cora responded boredly and unsmiling. "Anyway, if you're looking for the eighth Princess here, look no further. My Heartless have done a clean sweep of this place, and I've been searching for the past three hours. She's probably in a more... interesting world." She looked at Roxas, knowing that this would hit a soft spot. It did.

"Why do you even bother talking to us?" Roxas asked, frustrated, "You know what, why are you even looking to open the Door to Darkness and Kingdom Hearts? What good will having power do you, anyway?" Roxas had never understood this concept himself; the thirst for power, but what do they do with it afterwards? They build empires, they create armies, but then what? Who are they protecting themselves against?

Cora's face, for the first time he had ever seen it, went blank. She blinked a couple of times, and then looked behind her. Was she waiting for somebody? Finally, that same annoying smug look of hers spread across her features, and she crossed her arms across her chest. "Why do you go around trying to stop it? What good will that do you?" She shrugged, and finally answered his question. "It's something to do."

"Cora!" a voice called. Roxas looked into the distance, expecting to find Sora, Naminé or Kairi, done from Atlantica early, finding Cora as they looked for them. Instead, they found a girl with medium-long brown/blonde hair. Her forest green type hazel eyes were hidden behind glasses, but she was brandishing a keyblade that Roxas recognized as Star Seeker. "Stop running from me!"

"Umeko, stop boring me," Cora started, letting her dark brown gaze meet the girl's dark green one, and the girl pointed her keyblade farther out at Cora. Cora did not move her hands at all, and then she looked back in front of her. "I was enjoying the peace and quiet until you four came along."

"Four?" Umeko asked, and then her gaze traveled to Roxas, Sienna, and Riku. She shook her head. "Fight me, Cora. I won't wait any longer." She paused. "I'm not letting you get away this time."

Cora, at an unexpected move, let her hands fall to her sides and stood up straight after leaning against the wall. She did not walk up to Umeko, however, she smiled. "Umeko, drop it. You didn't like my decision, you didn't have to go after me for it. A fight is meaningless. Anyway," she chuckled, "Once second best always second best." In seconds, she disappeared into a wave of darkness.

After moments of silence, Sienna finally spoke up. Roxas smiled; it seemed like Sienna was definitely getting in tune with her authoritarian self. After all, Roxas was never much of a leader. That was Xemnas's job. That was Hayner's job. He liked being under the rule of somebody much more. "You know Cora?"

Umeko nodded and pushed up her glasses, which were sliding down her nose, probably from her face muscles tensing up in frustration. "She's my best friend. Or was. I don't know." She sighed, and I wondered if Sienna felt the same surprise as I did. "King Mickey sent me a little while ago after giving me this keyblade. He wanted me to help a group of keyblade wielders he also sent. I'm assuming you three?"

Sienna nodded. "Us, Sora and Naminé. They're checking out another world right now." She then smiled, outstretching her hand. "You know, you can travel with us," she offered, "we can use all the help we can get."

Umeko stared at the hand for a moment, her face unchanging, and then she backed up. "I'm more of a lone ranger, you get me?" Umeko asked, smiling weakly, "This isn't for anybody. I'm flattered for getting the keyblade that King Mickey gave me, but this is personal. It's between Cora and I." She shook her head. "Good luck finding the Princess."

In moments, Umeko had walked away, and Sienna turned towards Roxas, waiting for his imput. He tried not to look into her hazel eyes, so advanced that he thought he could see flecks of every color in the rainbow in them, as he began, "I wonder what happened. They used to be friends. It didn't look like it."

Finally, Riku spoke, "They were best friends their whole lives. Once Cora fell into the darkness and started her thirst for power, she forgot all about Umeko. Turns out, the two of them were both so close that Cora's ability to wield a keyblade rubbed off on Umeko. Now she's going after her, trying to get her friend back."

Sienna and Roxas stared at him blankly. "How did you know that?" Roxas asked.

Riku looked up at them, one eyebrow raised, and answered in a less-than-convincing tone, "It was obvious, wasn't it?"

**Author's Note: Yay, new character introduced and everything! So, I think that was a pretty eventful chapter, get ready for the exciting conclusion of the Atlantis and Twilight Town worlds in the next chapter! Please review!**


	8. Break The Silence

CHAPTER EIGHT:

BREAK THE SILENCE

-NOTE-

Fast update because Igor Lollipop has her panties in a bunch. xD So, I bet you all are wondering who the eight princess is by now, aren'tcha? Yeah, I know, it's excrutiating, but you're not finding out quite yet. D; Maybe a couple of chapters from now? :o It's not going to be a very long fanfiction, but we've still got a lot of worlds to go through. ;D Expect about five to eight more chapters, I'd suppose. We'll see. x3

Oh, and by the way, I decided to change the title to something that sounded a little bit better, and probably more fitting. Anyway, enjoy! Read and review please.

-/NOTE-

"Yes, Sora, I know where the keyhole is," King Triton responded through his beard, although he seemed half asleep. Sora, Naminé and Kairi waited in earnest, but fell at Triton's response, "but it will be difficult getting to it. Two merpeople, one saggy mermaid with black and white hair, and the other one, a merman, bald and having some sort of a panic attack, came by. They set up hundreds of Heartless to guard it."

"Bald and having a panic attack?" Sora asked, giving him a concerned look. It must have been Hades, he thought. The water would obviously put out his fire hair, and he was sure that Hades wasn't exactly used to crabs singing 'Under da Sea' back where he did all of his dirty work. Sora shuddered at the thought. "Where is it?"

"It's at an abandoned undersea trench, very close to where Ariel's Grotto lays. Ariel refuses to return even just to think for a little while; the Heartless have been frightening her for days now." King Triton shook his head, putting his forefinger and thumb on his eyebrows, obviously stressed.

"I think the Heartless should be afraid of her," Naminé mentioned quietly, and Kairi gave her a look, telling her to stop thinking out loud. "I mean, thank you," Naminé said a little more cheerfully, but she smiled nervously at the King of Atlantis, hoping to whatever was up there that he didn't hear her.

Sora led the way out, careful to not let Naminé "speak her mind" any further. He led them to Ariel's Grotto, which was, thankfully, extremely close to the castle. Sure enough, with a few minutes more swimming, they found ditch after ditch in the sand, until they could not see any farther down. "Do we have to swim under there?" Kairi asked nervously. She willed her Blade of Destiny in her hands, but hoped that she didn't have to use it. Hundreds of Heartless was a lot more than it seemed.

As if they were reading her mind, the second that they swam even forty feet down (feeling their ears popping all along the way), three of the same whale-like Heartless had appeared. Nervously, Sora let Crabclaw appear in his hand, and he shouted to Kairi, "I'll get this one, you two each get your own. Naminé, send some Nobodies at yours!"

Naminé nodded, and closed her eyes in concentration. As if by magic, which it probably was, a bunch of Dancers appeared, but they looked different than usual. They were larger and their 'outfits' more intricate, made of pink and yellow. All of them lunged at the Heartless, and Naminé wondered briefly if they would create a whole new Heartless being all together; then she thought that it would be impossible. It would have to be the Nobody that came from the same Somebody as the Heartless did. Within seconds, her Whale was gone, but Sora was still struggling with his. Kairi had hers down in seconds flat.

The Whale lunged at Sora, and he just barely dodged, his leg getting momentarily trapped in the thing's mouth. With intense power this time, he stabbed with his keyblade. It made contact, but the Whale stayed alive. Through its blowhole, fragments of nothing appeared, looking like vines, trying to wrap themselves around Sora. With a quick Reversal, he got his way out and slashed at the Whale again, this time it disappearing into darkness.

"I hope there aren't any more of those," was all Sora said, leading them farther down. Sure enough, at least twenty more of those Whale Heartless, a few swimming Invisibles, which Sora had never before seen, and an annoying amount of Aquatanks, which would no doubt be accompanied by Screwdrivers and Sheltering Zones. Sora sighed and tightened his grip on Crabclaw, "This will be difficult."

xxx

Sienna gave Riku a sideways look. She couldn't tell if he just made that entire speil up just to confuse them, or if he really meant it, in which case Riku was one hell of a mindreader. "That was fun," Sienna lied, but smiled when Roxas caught her eye. "Where else can we look?" Sienna asked, flashing him the award-winning smile- probably the one that had made her be Homecoming Queen twice at her old school. It was either that or her popularity, but she wasn't lingering on that anymore.

"Well, since we know that the eighth Princess isn't here, I'm sure we could take our time." Roxas smiled and moved towards Sienna, who, thankfully for him, smiled back, even wider than she had before. As she moved forward, Riku stepped in between them and Sienna's smile faded into a perterbed glare.

"Let's just find the keyhole and then we don't have to worry so much about the Heartless attacking the shit out of everyone who isn't lucky enough to be protected by the defensive system. So answer her question, Roxas, where's the keyhole?" Sienna and Roxas stared at Riku for a good five seconds, "_Please_. I mean, please tell us where the keyhole is."

Roxas shook his head. "You know I don't know, but I'm thinking that if Cora was hanging around here, we should check inside of the usual spot. Sound good, Sienna?" Roxas turned towards Sienna, who looked shock, but she still nodded, trying to be as helpful as she could in the situation.

"Hey, who are you?" A teenage boy's voice called from inside of the Usual Spot. A boy with wavy blond hair stepped out, less than amused. Following him was another boy wearing a hat and some kind of a jersey, a little bit overweight, odd against the first boy's instense slimness. "What are you doing around here?"

"I'm Roxas," Roxas repeated for these two, "and this is Riku and Sienna. I'm Sora's twin brother. They're his friends. Do you remember him?" Roxas asked hopefully, and the blond haired boy smiled slightly as the one with the hat nodded. "Hayner, have you seen a keyhole around the Usual Place?" _Shit,_ Roxas scolded himself too late, _they don't know you anymore, remember? Or, they never knew you._

Hayner, the blond one, gave him a confused look. "You've been talking to Olette, haven't you?" Finally he nodded, "We saw something inside of the Usual Place once Olette told us that some girl's been hanging around it. There's a giant keyhole behind our vacant chair." He smiled. "But give us a reason why we should let you in."

"Because I know some of your deepest, darkest secrets and I wouldn't mind sharing them with everybody." Roxas said. _Retard,_ he scolded himself, _strike two._ Still, he awaited Hayner's response. He was staring at Roxas with wide eyes.

"You liar."

Roxas smirked, and bent forward to whisper something inaudible to Riku and Sienna in his ear. Hayner's cheeks suddenly got more full of color, and he started, "How did you...?" He looked at Sienna and Riku, who looked just as innocent as possible, "Fine," he finally responded, letting them into the Usual Spot. Roxas stepped in as if he returned there every day, but Sienna could see the nostalgia on his face as he did so. The room was relatively small, and it was definitely furnished by a group of teenagers.

"The one vacant chair?" Roxas asked himself, and then he moved towards a specific chair that he used to sit at, the one closest to the door, and closest to Olette's chair. Moving it backwards, he faced himself with the giant keyhole of Twilight Town, and grinned as if he discovered treasure. "Bingo." he stated. Pulling out Oathkeeper, he pointed it at the keyhole, but then looked over at Sienna. "Help me out?" Roxas asked innocently. _Whoa,_ he thought to himself, _what's up with you lately?_

Sienna gave a sheepish smile and blushed, but walked up to him and put her hands on top of his, encasing them. A quick light shot out of Oathkeeper and into the keyhole, but for a moment, it felt like Sienna and Roxas were in there own world, full of only the colors, people, and objects they wanted to see. It was over after what seemed like hours, but it was over too quickly. Finally, as the world resurfaced to them, Sienna wrenched her hands off of Roxas's, and Roxas looked up at her, wearing a smile that didn't look like his usual calm, serious and smart one. It looked _loving_.

"Hey, lovebirds, come on. We have to go wait for Sora." Riku flipped his long, silver hair behind his back, which must have gotten screwed up sometime when they were searching through the mansion, and Roxas wrenched his gaze away from Sienna's. Sienna finally forced herself to do the same.

"We're not-"

"Whatever."

xxx

"Just a few more to go!" Sora called, slashing the crap out of one of three Aquatanks left. It let out a disgusting moan (and something else rather disgusting from the pit of its throat and onto Sora's chest) and began to flail around angrily. Of course, the Corkscrews surrounding them were becoming annoying, so eventually Sora tried a Gravira, which he was surprised worked underwater at all. Many of Naminé's Advanced Dancers made themselves present in helping out Kairi, but none of them seemed to want to help Sora at all. He wasn't sure if it had something to do with his being a male, but it very well might have.

"They're gone," Kairi called, the only Aquatank left being Sora's, which was destroyed within seconds. "Is this the way?" She pointed to an odd knot on one of the walls in the trenches, a giant hole that led to a hallway-like cavern.

"It's gotta be." Sora responded, asserting his masculinity and being the first to swim inside. Naminé shuddered.

"It's creepy enough." She breathed in sharply as another Corkscrew swam in front of them, but Sora's reflexes were too quick for it. He stabbed Crabclaw sharply into it, and it disappeared into the water.

"The Corkscrews are the worst," he decided then and there. "You can't use thunder on any of them. They like it." He muttered to himself something about wishing that Ariel wasn't PMSing; maybe she would be able to help them beat the cornucopia of Heartless sent down by the Wicked Witch of the West.

"I think what's the worst," Cruella de Vil's, obviously cruel, voice chimed in. They all wrenched their heads to where the cavern forked, and supposed that they had been heading the wrong way, seeing Cruella standing in front of a shadowy keyhole, in just a bra and silver fins. Sora, Naminé and Kairi all screamed.

"I think what's the worst is seeing you in anything but pounds of fur. _Pounds. Of. Fur_." Sora shuddered, and looked away. Kairi, however, looked at Cruella's face, which was fuming in anger and disgust at the Crabclaw wielder.

"If you brats think that you're getting to this keyhole, think again!" Cruella snapped, "There's not even a point! The eighth Princess isn't in this world, either. All of your searching so far has been in vain." Suddenly, she pulled both of her hands to her mouth and looked at them in surprise, mumbling something that sounded like _Shit shit shit shit._

"She's not here?" Sora asked enthusiastically, and Cruella, less-than-coolly brought her hands down from her mouth and onto her fishy waist, shaking her head.

"No, she's not. Much may the knowledge please you." She paused and grinned widely, pulling out an odd staff with spotted fur at the end of it. "But there is no way in Hell that I'm letting you get out of this cavern alive!"

xxx

Sienna, Riku, and Roxas's in-depth conversation was quickly interrupted as they walked out into the Tram Commons, looking at a familiar red-head. Axel was on the ground, gasping for breath and on one knee. He was bleeding from his nose, a cut in his cheek and a deep gash in his chest, and when he noticed their presence, he stood up and ran towards them. "Roxas... Sienna... Riku..."

"Axel, what happened?" Roxas asked, concerned. Even Riku, who had finally been warming up to traveling with Roxas and Sienna, seemed worried about him, helping him up by grabbing his left arm while Roxas grabbed his right.

"Somehow Cora found out that I was spying for you guys. And I thought that we were hidden well last night, but..." He shook his head gravely. Once Riku was sure he was up and they directed him to a bench, he slunk back behind Sienna and Roxas, looking down at his own feet. Axel continued. "She's strong, man," he continued, looking at Roxas. "She did this to me with a couple of swipes with her keyblade. I could barely see her moving."

"It makes sense," Roxas muttered, "she was supposed to be the savior of the realms, before Riku that is. And then Riku gave it up by going to the darkness, leaving Sora with the job. It figures that she'd be pretty strong, being the first choice from... I don't know, the keyblade God or whatever." Still, Roxas shook his head and sat down next to Axel. "Come back to Hollow Bastion with us tonight. I'm sure Aerith can fix you up." **Author's Note: I hate calling her Aerith. xD AERIS. Oh well, that's what they call her in Kingdom Hearts.**

"Did you manage to learn anything else before you were thrown out?" Sienna asked hopefully, but then she looked embarrassed; she felt that she wasn't being sympathetic enough for him.

On the contrary, Axel was quite happy for everyone to stop gawking at the cut on his chest. He grinned up at Sienna and began, "Yeah, a couple new things. Like, her destination after here is the Deep Jungle. And besides that, there are only two other worlds. Once you lock those up, you'll be able to get to the End of the World. That's where her lair is. If you can stop her there, you can stop her from ever getting the eighth Princess. I also learned other things." His eyes fell as well as his smile, and Riku looked up from his feet into Axel's eyes. Axel grinned again, "But they're not important."

"That's great!" Roxas exclaimed enthusiastically. "It's all we needed. I just wish that we knew some of her weaknesses," he said, surveying Axel's cuts again. It looked like he was trying to suppress a shudder.

xxx

"I knew there was something up with Axel," Cora muttered, Hades listening like an obedient minion, but looking directly at her amulet (which was placed in a place that he really shouldn't have been staring at). "Then again, I guess I'm no better than they were, having Axel be a spy. I've got one of my own." She let her head fall to her desk in frustration, sending her littered Heartless anatomy documents scattering throughout the room. "Ugh," she began, "_Sui-he-li-be-bo-ku-no-fu-ne. Sui-he-li-be-bo-ku-no-fu-ne._"

"What are you doing?" Hades asked, annoyed. He didn't understand Japanese any better than he understood English, "That sounds ridiculous. You don't even know Japanese."

Cora glared at him. "It's a pneumonic device that Japanese students use to remember some elements off of the periodic table. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, berillym, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine and neon." Hades sighed. There she went again, off on her science craze. Amazing how someone who was surrounded with the unexplainable day after day tried to come up with an explanation for everything. And yet, she was religious. His 'leader' bugged the crap out of him sometimes; so contradictory, she was.

Cora shrugged. "Don't get me started on the functions of the Medulla Oblongata." She cracked a pencil in frustration. "This is going to be difficult. I wonder how Cruella de Dumbshit is doing." She shook her head.

"She's not really a fighter. You should have sent me down there, but I'm not complaining," Hades said, except he was completely complaining.

"You had a spaz attack under water. You're the only capable fighter I have left, one step under the Heartless," he frowned at her, "I'm not about to lose you to a little salt water, you big rolling baby."

xxx

"I... will not... be... defeated!" Cruella gasped, gashes pouring blood all throughout the ocean. The salt of the water numbed them slightly, but she cursed Cora silently for making her guard this keyhole. Apparently, her water Heartless were some of her strongest Heartless. She cursed again, and fell back into the portal to darkness.

"I think we beat her," Naminé stated happily, calling back her swimming Advanced Dancers. "Let's seal the keyhole and get back to Roxas," she lingered slightly on the name, "Sierra and Riku. I bet they've been waiting for a while."

Sora nodded, and went up to seal the keyhole. In a few bright flashes of light, the keyhole glowed, and disappeared into the world. He pulled down Crabclaw with a satisfied look on his face, and smiled at the two of them. "Yeah," he stated, still grinning, "Let's go."

xxx

Umeko looked at the base of the building. She had fought so hard since she abandoned the other three Keyblade wielders at Twilight Town to get to where she was in the End of the World. She had managed to find a secret passage into it without having to seal the rest of the keyholes, but she wasn't about to share it with Sora, whoever that was, or any of his friends.

If anyone was going to beat Cora, it would be her. Umeko had a right, she told herself, a right to put her best friend in her place, to remind her where her loyalties lay. Unfortunately, she might have been dipped too far beneath the darkness to reach her. She was so hung up on finding the eighth Princess for what? More power?

"Cora," she whispered, "I'm coming."

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter was a little bit short, but on the brightest side, it wasn't my shortest yet! xD We'll be seeing a couple of scenes in the viewpoint of Umeko soon, and that's good, because she's pretty awesome so far, I think. xD Anyway, please review!**


	9. Destruction

CHAPTER NINE

DESTRUCTION

-NOTE-

I finally have the rest of the fanfiction planned out, chapter by chapter, except this one. xD So I'm trusting this chapter not to ruin the rest of them, although knowing my luck, I'll probably have to change a lot of the plans. Oh well. xD Thank you for the readers/reviewers, it's really you guys that keep me writing these. xD So, I've got a couple of surprises in store for you next chapter, but chapter eleven is the big one. And the fanfiction should end at chapter seventeen, which will be the epilogue, but don't worry, because I plan on making a sequel. : D

Oh, and I just looked at the statistics to this fanfiction, and I have a lot more readers than I thought! So thank you to all of you, and the reviewers!

-/NOTE-

After Sora, Naminé and Kairi picked up Sienna, Riku, Roxas, and the unexpected Axel from Twilight Town, Roxas explained in full Axel's situation. The plan was to unlock the rest of the worlds so they could make it to End of the World, as it would open a Path of Light for them. He also barely touched on the anomaly, Umeko, but that was because she preferred to 'work alone'. It was a shame, she had some courage that quite a few of the keyblade wielding team had lacked up in there.

When nighttime came, Sienna found themselves a little more cramped than usual. Naminé and Roxas had needed a place to sleep, along with Axel, although he had claimed the bathroom tub. Sienna never quite figured out why, but she wasn't going to question the possibility of not having to give up her space on the soft rug.

It wasn't as if she needed it, however. She still had her insomnia. Tossing and turning that night, she could focus on nothing. First, she thought of Cora. Then, her thoughts drifted to Umeko, to the keyblades, to the worlds, to how powerful Cora had been to hurt Axel in such a way, and so many other things. Finally, she sighed, lying on her back, and was just barely able to supress a scream when she saw Roxas's face hovering over her.

Roxas laughed. "I didn't mean to scare you," he whispered, "I just can't sleep very well." He shrugged as Sienna sat up and they both met each other face-to-face, "Never could. I don't know where Sora gets it." He winced, hearing an unbelievably loud snore coming from where Sora was lying down. It was odd; he had just picked up the snoring habit at the beginning of this year. Roxas didn't want to think of what other habits he picked up.

Sienna shook her head, "You didn't scare me." This technically wasn't a lie; being scared was an entirely different feeling than being shocked. Besides, she could never be afraid of Roxas. He was the last person she felt she had to be afraid of. "Riku's been a lot nicer since we confronted him, I think."

Roxas chuckled lowly again, the kind of chuckle that made Sienna shiver, but in a good way. "Since _you_ confronted him. You've gotten so much more confident in just the last couple of days. Have you considered running in political office?"

Sienna looked at him for a moment and laughed, both of them staring deeply into each other. "No, I haven't. My teachers never really considered me 'politics' material. Although, my math teacher asked me to cut her daughter's hair, once. Why do you ask?"

"You've always got great ideas that nobody around here really thinks of. And, like I said, you can be really confident when you try." Roxas looked behind his shoulder when he heard Sora rustling in his sheets, mumbling something about 'not wanting to see Cruella like that'. Roxas frowned. "Want to go take a walk?"

Of course, Sienna nodded excitedly. She thought she could see Naminé shifting under her covers the second before the door closed behind her. For a moment, she felt guilty, but when her gaze traveled back to Roxas's, everything felt right.

"You're different than I thought you'd be," Roxas finally admitted after a moment of their walking, causing Sienna to look up at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Roxas began, "that I've been seeing what Sora has, feeling what he's been feeling. Since he met you, both of us thought that you'd just be deadweight." He laughed, and then caught the look on Sienna's face, and then decided he probably shouldn't have said that, "But you're actually a lot stronger at heart than we imagined. If a Heartless were to ever take your heart, you'd become a high-level Nobody for sure."

"I don't know if I should be flattered or worried," Sienna giggled, looking back at her feet. "I still feel like I'm 'deadweight', if you ask me."

Roxas stopped in his tracks, and so did Sienna. He placed his first and middle finger under Sienna's chin, and pushed up so her eyes were facing his. Roxas chuckled lowly again, and Sienna felt as though she could melt. "Nobody did," Roxas responded. For once in her life, she knew where she belonged. She didn't belong back at her old home, at Destiny Islands, as a cosmotologist or a politician, but she belonged with the other keyblade wielders, she belonged with Roxas. Naminé didn't matter to her at that moment. He bent down and brushed his lips across hers, but then looked up, surprised.

"I'm sorry," Sienna muttered, about to walk off. Roxas, however, grabbed her by the arm, and bent down to kiss her again. His lips were soft and tasted like lemondrops, Sienna realized. His kisses were slow, but persistent, and just as unwilling to let go as she was. Her stomach did sommersaults in herself, and she could feel Roxas's hands, which had just fallen to her waist, trembling. He was just as nervous as she was.

When they finally broke apart, still standing very close to the Restoration Committee's building, the first things she saw were Roxas's cobalt eyes, glimmering despite the lack of sunlight. The next she saw was Naminé, turning around at her gaze, running back inside of the Restoration Committee's headquarters.

"Wait-" Sienna started, but Roxas shook his head. She looked back up at him. His cheeks were still flustered from the long kiss, and his eyes were wide awake from the electricity, probably the same that Sienna had felt running down her spine with every kiss he gave her. His hands, thankfully, had stopped shaking.

"I'll talk to her later." Roxas promised Sienna. He could feel every feeling that Sienna was; guilt, nervousness, and betrayal, although Roxas had known that him and Naminé had never really been together. If anything, they had been close friends. Still, it killed Roxas that a close friend would be hurt by that. Someone he might have even loved at a point, but that was before he met Sienna.

Just as unwilling to let go as Roxas, Sienna stood up on her toes and kissed him again. As she had expected, he kissed her back.

xxx

"Axel said that Cora's next destination was the Deep Jungle, to go find the eighth Princess, right?" Sora asked, and Roxas confirmed his suspicion with a nod. "Since you guys found that out from Axel, Naminé, Kairi and I will go," he said, looking back at Roxas and Sienna (both of which looked oddly suspicious) and Riku. Sienna wanted to speak up and mention how that didn't make any sense, but she kept her mouth shut.

"What about me?" Axel asked, crossing his arms. He had a large bandage over his cheek, but his nose had stopped bleeding. The group knew that under his Organization coat, which Aerith had mended for him, was a ten-foot long bandage wrapped around Axel's torso. Sora shook his head; there was no way he was going out in that condition.

"You helped us enough," Sora reassured him, but Axel still frowned. He was definitely the kind of Nobody that couldn't sit still for too long. There were plenty of lesser Nobodies that Sora wouldn't mind comparing him to in that sense, but he held his breath. After all, Axel had turned over a whole new leaf.

"You three should go to Wonderland. That's where we found the first Princess of Heart, after all." Kairi suggested to Roxas, who nodded. Ariel must have been really upset when she learned Alice was a Princess of Heart, however; she wasn't even a princess. Sora shuddered at the thought, but then walked outside to start up the Gummi Ship.

Before they left, however, he handed Roxas something small but vaguely familiar; the Olympus Ring. "In case you guys come across Hades," he told his 'twin brother', "because we'll probably find Cora."

Roxas nodded, and put on the ring.

xxx

"That's all you've got for me, Cora?" Umeko whispered to herself after slaughtering the last Heartless in the room up in Cora's Lair. She smirked; she had barely gotten hurt at all, and that was probably the fiftieth Heartless she had to fight to get to where she was, and she wasn't even half way through her lair yet. Still, she pulled out a Potion and began drinking it; no sense in not having energy left to fight Cora later.

If a fight was even necessary, that was.

Finally, Umeko let her eyes adjust to the dark room (she didn't flip on the lightswitch because she was afraid that Cora would find her early), and saw things that she could not explain. She knew that her friend was into biology and anatomy, but posters of the Anatomy of the Heartless, what allows it to live without a beating heart, and some words that she couldn't even pronounced were plastered over the walls. Not just that, but small post-it notes with questions, probably coming directly from her wandering thoughts, surronded them.

Walking up to one of the post-it notes, she pulled it down and closer to her face so she could read it. "Is the source of Heartless life as put up to faith as something like religion?" Her handwriting was that of a comic sans, but slightly different, and way more readable than she imagined. She walked up to another, pulled it down from the wall, and read it. "How does the central dogma of molecular biology function in the data transfer when Heartless reproduce by stealing the heart of another? Is it present at all?" Finally, another one caught her eye, one blue post-it note against the other yellow ones. She pulled it down, and the question asked, "Does the form of the Heartless have to do with the strength of the heart they once had, or is it evolutionary, based on the strength of the hearts they take?"

Umeko looked up to where that post-it had been taken from, and where it used to be was a small button that almost looked like the 'emergency' buttons that they placed throughout a schoolhouse, but underneath it, there was no label.

"A button," Umeko said, now extremely interested. Without thinking of the consequences or where it could lead her, she pointed out her index finger and pressed the blue button down, and heard something shift fom a little bit of distance behind her.

The floor had moved, revealing a staircase down to a different room entirely. Umeko's eyes glimmered. "A secret passageway," she murmured, sure that this would bring her up to Cora's room. Hesitating no further, she followed the stairs down to the room, which was cold and dark, but her eyes had adjusted quickly. The ceiling above her closed. "I guess there's no turning back now."

xxx

"_Ooh. Aah. Ooh._" Tarzan tried to explain with much difficulty, waving his hands in the air as if he were speaking sign language. Tarzan knew quite a bit of English since he had been living with Jane, but obviously he was having a difficult time vocalizing where he had seen the keyhole last. He didn't, however, know anything about an eighth Princess, but he jumped up and down shouting, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" when he was given Cora's description.

"Why don't you show us?" Sora asked Tarzan, and Tarzan nodded excitedly. Jane wasn't there to give him her blessings, so he got to make his own decision. Sora looked over at Kairi. She seemed perfectly at home in the warm habitat, but Naminé looked upset. As they followed Tarzan out of the house, he couldn't help but to ask. "Naminé, what's up?" Sora asked, frowning. Naminé looked up at him.

"Nothing," Naminé said, putting on a smile that looked much too forced. _I know what I've got to do,_ was what Naminé was actually thinking. Sora continued to look at her, concerned, but she focused her attention back on Tarzan, who was now leading them in the canopy of the jungle, to where, none of them could guess. She changed the subject, "Riku wasn't in the room for most of last night again."

"Again?" Kairi asked, putting her fist to her mouth, "He's been sneaking off at night? I wonder what's going on."

Sora, however, seemed the most worried about his best friend. "Maybe he just hasn't been able to get to sleep. I wonder if insomnia's contageous." He remembered Sienna explaining her insomnia, and shivered. "But now I'm worried." He paused. "Come to think of it, Riku's been acting really weird the past couple of days. He's usually really quiet and helpful, but he's been sorta cold and distant, even to me."

"I noticed that, too," Kairi said, twirling a lock of crimson hair between her fingers in her nervouseness. "You don't think anything's happened to him recently, do you?" She was asking more of herself, however, worried for her friend as she stared up at the trees, creating dapples of shadows on her face. Sora stared at her in awe, possibly in her beauty, but he then shook his head quickly and focused on Tarzan, who was trying to say something.

"Ugh." Tarzan finally spoke, interrupting the in-depth conversation of Riku's nighttime disappearances. He stopped in front of a large cave, easily resembling the underwater trench and cavern that they were forced to swim through the day before. A rock weighed down Sora's stomach, and he gulped. He was getting chlaustrophobic.

"Thanks, Tarzan," Sora said, stepping into the cave. It was cold and smelled like mildew, but he was sure that he would get over that fast. Kairi and Naminé stepped in hesitantly, obviously not appreciating the new sensations any more than Sora was.

And, of course, they couldn't be without Heartless for too long.

Neoshadows, Soldiers, and Bouncywilds made themselves present only fifteen feet into the linear cave, barely visible with the lack of light. Sora looked behind him; Tarzan had disappeared somewhere along the line, probably back to Jane. He allowed Crabclaw to appear in his hand, but he quickly switched the keychain to Ultima, sure that he wouldn't have much more of a chance to use it in his 'Keyblading', as Sienna had once called it, career.

xxx

"Something tells me we're too big to get through the door," Sienna murmured. They were standing in an awkward room in Wonderland, the only things big enough for them being a chair, a table, and a potion. Her gaze traveled over to the potion on the table. "Why don't we drink that? Maybe it will make us smaller."

"Fuck that," Riku began, and shoved a foot through the door, causing the wall around it to break off. He crawled through, much to the protest of the talking doorknob. Roxas lunged his hand forward to protest, but shook his head, believing that he could never get through to him. He followed Riku through the hole in the wall, followed closely by Sienna. Obviously, Riku was in a big hurry to get out.

"What are _those_?" Sienna asked, looking down. She saw a bunch of cards, running around and shouting.

"Not another one!" One of the cards, a Three of Clubs shouted. "Not another giant! We were lucky that the other one stayed in the forest!" He cried out, and similar, agreeing cries were heard among them.

"Talking cards," Roxas posed, "I've seen all I need to see. Hey-" He picked up one of the screaming cards, which just caused the ones around him to scream in even more fright. "This other giant, what did he look like?" Roxas asked. Sienna couldn't help but to notice how much he looked like Sora when he was trying to cooperate with the natives of a world. The card said something inaudible to the rest of them, but Roxas heard just fine.

"It's Hades, guys," Roxas started, "he's in the forest, probably guarding the keyhole. Let's go!" He finally looked over the room that they were standing in, and saw a forest to the left. Roxas and Sienna were very careful of stepping over the topiary animals and the wall, but Riku just walked right through it, sending the talking cards into more of a frenzy.

There was something lucky about Hades not drinking the potion, also; he was easy to pick out amongst everything else in the forest, which was mostly tiny. Plus, his hair was setting quite a few of the trees on fire.

xxx

"You guys are really desperate to get to the keyhole, aren't you?" Cora asked, looking at the keyhole at the end of the cave, carefully etched into the wall. She was tracing it with her left forefinger, and didn't even bother to look back at the three of them. Sora gripped Ultima, and Kairi held her Destiny Blade close. Several Advanced Dancers surrounded Naminé, awaiting her orders like puppies.

"You're really desperate to keep us away from it," Naminé pointed out, although her hands, which were curled into fists, were trembling.

"The eighth Princess isn't here, either..." Cora mumbled, and then she shouted, desperation finally present in her voice and her face as she turned around to look at the rest of them. "I don't _understand_. I've looked in every single world known to the keyblade wielders and other that even know about other worlds, and she's nowhere to be found. I've searched the dark realm, as well. I just don't understand. Nothing _fits_!"

"What about Naminé?" Kairi asked for the first time, "She _is_ my Nobody, and I _am_ a Princess of Heart," she pointed out, looking at Sora. Sora seemed to agree with it fine, even surprised himself, but then she looked over at Naminé, who shook her head.

"No," Naminé said, "a Princess of Heart has to have a heart that's completely pure. It's been proven that Nobodies can feel, but all we are are empty shells that can feel." She put her hand to her chest, "we don't have hearts. No Nobody can ever be a Princess of Heart. But maybe we're on the right track."

They all looked over at Cora, who was looking up through heavily lidded eyes. Sora whipped his Ultima up to slash at her, but her speed astounded him. Without much effort, her keyblade, Impending Darkness, stopped Sora's, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent it flying to the other side of the cave.

Of course, the keyblade just reappeared in Sora's hand, and he was breathing heavily. "And look who the first one is to take a strike." Cora grimaced, but her heart didn't seem to be in any of it. She looked over at Kairi and Naminé. "Go ahead, take a shot," Cora challenged keeping her arms to the side of her. Kairi didn't make a move, and Naminé's Nobodies stayed exactly where they were standing.

Cora sighed, and turned back to face the keyhole. She said something that only Naminé could hear, having the best ears out of all three of them. "What do I live for?" Cora whispered to herself, shaking her head.

Naminé recoiled suddenly. She had been asking herself that since the night before. Answer after answer she had given herself, but for once, she was completely blank. What did she live for? She had seen what Roxas and Sienna lived for, nothing of which included her. "Cora..." Naminé started.

Cora shook her head, and disappeared in a portal of darkness before Naminé could even tell her to wait. Kairi and Sora were equally confused, but the also seemed to be upset. Was their enemy finally taking a turn? Without asking himself, Sora held out Ultima, pointed it at the keyhole, and sealed the world.

xxx

Roxas had been fighting Hades for the better part of an hour. It finally seemed like Hades was slowing down, slightly perturbed still by the fact that Roxas had the Olympus Ring. He wanted to quarantine everyone who had something like that; Gods, especially the God of the Underworld, shouldn't have been able to be hurt in any way or shape. Although Hades knew he would not die, he knew that he didn't want to deal with the pain anymore.

"If you see Cora," Hades said, gasping and clutching his left arm, "tell her I quit. I'm going back home. I heard there was a rockslide and those idiots Pain and Panic couldn't handle it anyway. Sayonara, suckers." Hades began to walk away, and then he paused. "Oh, right. Cora didn't want me to say anything, but I revived every member of Organization XIII for her. They're back planning something I'm sure." Hades disappeared in a very Greek puff of smoke, and Roxas smiled at the work he had done.

"I can't believe it. He actually revived all of Organization XIII?" Roxas frowned. "Well, they haven't been a threat so far, so I don't see any problem with them."

"But where's the keyhole?" Riku asked, generally confused. He then turned to a tree that Hades had been standing in front of, which had a very oddly-shaped knot in it. "There it is," he answered his own question, pointing it out to a curious Sienna and Roxas. Without thinking, Roxas pointed Oblivion at the keyhole.

In moments, he opened his eyes, which he hadn't realized he had been closing, and stared at the tree. The keyhole was gone, and the Heartless that had been crowding around them disappeared into thin air. Happily, Roxas turned towards Riku, and then towards Sienna. Without even thinking, she walked over to him.

"I think I deserve something for beating the God of the Underworld all on my own," Roxas said, putting on a false facade of dignity and formality.

"Say please," Sienna told him, smiling.

"Please?" Roxas asked. Riku looked away, rolling his eyes. He was, however, smiling. Accomplishment number two from Roxas. Sienna grinned as well, and stood on her toes to kiss him. She still couldn't quite stop since the night before.

xxx

"Is this it?" Umeko asked herself, flipping her dirty blonde hair behind her ears. She hadn't realized that it had been getting in her eyes; it wasn't really that big of a problem when she had been walking in a dark house. After all, Cora was over at Deep Jungle, Cruella De Vil was gone for good, and Hades was over at Wonderland. She probably had all the time in the world, but she wanted to be safe.

Suddenly, the light flipped on. Umeko blinked, the sudden light hurting her eyes, which had adjusted themselves to the darkness. She saw a dark blur amongst everything, and blinked again. Cora was standing in front of her, no more than two feet away. She had a confused look on her face, but also a tired and frustrated one. Cora was pointing Impending Darkness Umeko's way, so Umeko summoned Star Seeker.

After a few moments of their standing there, Cora shook her head, and Impending Darkness disappeared. "I'm not gonna fight you," she said, looking at where they were standing. The wall behind Umeko had closed; they were inside a jail cell. That was what the building originally was, after all. A large police office that had been thrusted into End of the World when one of the worlds had been destroyed by the darkness.

"No, you're just going to let your Heartless do the talking, like the last three times I tried to confront you, aren't you, Cora?" Umeko asked her old friend angrily. _I just don't understand what made her this way,_ was all that went through Umeko's head. They had been friends since first grade; what came over her?

"Do you see any Heartless?" Cora asked with no real heat, unhurt by Umeko's comment. Umeko was tempted to look around the cell, but she nodded her head slowly.

"Heartless?" Umeko asked with a sharp laugh. "I'm looking right at one."

Much to her surprise, Cora nodded. "Probably." She fell down through the floor, through her portal of darkness. Umeko swore; great, the wall behind her had closed in on her, and she was stuck in a jail cell of all places. How did she plan on getting out of this one? Umeko looked around her cell. A White Mushroom was also roaming around in it, walking through dark portals to walk back and forth between cells.

_Perfect_.

**Author's Note: Sorry about the jumpiness, I had a lot to get out of the way this chapter. Next chapter is a big one; I hope you've been paying attention to the demeanor of some of the characters. But chapter eleven is also going to be pretty huge. Anyway, I think SiennaxRoxas is adorable. xD I'm glad I decided to go along with it. Oh, and Hades reviving the rest of Organization XIII is probably going to be a major part of the sequel's plotline. Please review!**


	10. Stuttering

CHAPTER TEN:

STUTTERING

-NOTE-

I wonder if anyone's noticed that all of my title names come from songs now? xD They are pretty vague, though.

So this is a huge chapter, I really hope that you all aren't shocked by some of the results, but at the same time, I hope you are? xD I tried to make it relatively obvious what was going on, but at the same time, I decided to leave a little clue-in every now and then to throw off anything. Either way, let's see what happens to Umeko first of all! Poor girl gets herself captured... xD Thanks again to my readers/reviewers! So, I think I'll ask you to do the same in this chapter. xD

-/NOTE-

Umeko paced back and forth in her cell, waiting for the White Mushroom to reappear in her cell. Damn, that thing was jumpy- it just couldn't pick a place to stay. She had a keyblade and a fair amount of items, and guessed that it would be relatively easy to get this Heartless to help her, but it just needed to _stay still_!

Finally, the White Mushroom came to a resting place in Umeko's cell. Umeko grinned happily, almost maliciously, and walked up to the wandering Heartless. "What do you need?" she asked, concerned only because she knew this Heartless would do her a favor if she granted whatever whim the Heartless had.

The White Mushroom fell to the ground.

At first, Umeko stared at it in utter disbelief, but then grinned knowingly; this Heartless wanted Cura. She summoned Starseeker and pointed it at the small, helpless Heartless, and murmured, "Cura," The Heartless beamed up, but Umeko knew it wasn't over. These things usually wanted three favors.

Next, the White Mushroom began floating in mid-air.

"My God," Umeko murmured, she had to get the most fucked-up White Mushroom existing in the End of the World, didn't she? Still with Starseeker in her hand, she mustered more of her magical energy and spoke, "Gravira." The White Mushroom fell to the ground, possibly a little perturbed, but satisfied nonetheless. Check. Then, it made its third move.

A small light illuminated above the White Mushroom's head. It was nice for a moment, because it illuminated the cell, and Umeko could see the bricks that surrounded them in full detail. How those unholy bricks had taunted her for the three hours that she had spent waiting for that damn Heartless to stop in her cell. "Thundara," she said finally, striking the White Mushroom with an odd thunder. It crossed its little arms, and walked up to Umeko.

"Listen, is there any way you can make me a portal to Hollow Bastion?" She asked the Heartless. It did not respond, but it cocked its head in interest and curiosity. "_Hollow Bastion_," Umeko repeated, more pressingly. As if the creature finally understood, its head perked up, and nodded. Pointing its tiny little had at the brick wall, a small, dark portal had appeared, just big enough for Umeko to walk through.

"Thanks," she said, resting a hand on its head before she rushed through the portal. Cora hadn't outsmarted her yet.

xxx

Roxas was lying on his back, looking at the ceiling of the Restoration Committee's headquarters. The day had been perfect, including the night before. The only problem was that Sienna was sleeping. He didn't want to disturb her; this was probably the first night she got a real sleep in weeks; she had told him all about her insomnia. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, trying with failure once more to fall asleep.

Suddenly, he heard a rapping on the window. Roxas paused in the middle of his sighing, and a pain shot through his stomach. He had heard of Edgar Allen Poe's poem, The Raven, but who was dead? Still, he stood up and let his eyes adjust, until he saw a familiar girl at the window, looking oddly impatient.

Roxas walked up to the window and pushed it up. Maybe she had finally decided that she was going to travel with them, he thought. "Umeko," he started, grinning just a slight bit after a calm yawn, "did you want to-"

"I've found a shortcut to End of the World. You won't have to unlock the rest of the worlds to get there," Umeko stated importantly, taking Roxas aback. He smiled at the news however, and tried to keep his voice down.

"Nice to see you, too," Roxas grinned, but Umeko hit him on the arm playfully.

"Not now. Wake everybody up; we've got to go _now_. Cora will be out searching the other worlds for the eighth Princess if we get there tomorrow."

"What's so bad about that?" Roxas asked, considering this as he stared up at the ceiling. "If she finds the eighth Princess, she'll come back with her, and we can deal with Cora and get the Princess all in one shot. It sounds like a plan to me." As Roxas moved to wake everybody up, Umeko stopped him.

"I don't think that's going to happen," Umeko stated, "I've got a good idea of where the eighth Princess has been hiding, but that's not important now. After we find and stop Cora, everything will fit together. Now go wake them up and I'll drive the Gummi Ship. Bring Axel, too, if he's healed up; he can probably help."

"I was going to," Roxas said, still grinning from the news. The less worlds they had to lock up before they could stop the growing 'evil', the better.

**Warning: Gummi Ship Rant by Author ahead. **By the time he had woken up Sora, Riku, Kairi, Naminé, Sienna and Axel, he dragged them outside to go meet up with Umeko. Umeko explained everything to them, but all of them heard Sora snore every now and then; it was a good thing that Umeko knew how to drive a Gummi Ship and the directions, because Sora would probably get a DWS- Driving While Sleeping. Not the most dignified way to get pulled over by the Air Police- or whoever it was that was constantly shooting at you on your way to different worlds. I mean, since when can Heartless man ships? That's ridiculous. They can't just leave you alone, drive and let drive. No, that would make Kingdom Hearts too easy.

Still, all of them got in the Gummi Ship silently. By the time the ship had taken off, the excitement of knowing that they found a way to End of the World had disappeared, and the nerves that were wracking at the idea of fighting Cora were beginning. Every now and then when Sora and Kairi were holding hands, they would have to send each other a reassuring squeeze just so they could get through the tension.

Sienna wanted to do the same, but every time she lifted her hand to move towards Roxas's, she looked at Naminé. Naminé, who had never done anything wrong to her in her life. Naminé, who probably cared for Roxas much longer than she did. Naminé, who didn't deserve any of this. She refused to look at either of them.

Finally, after dodging a few meteors, they had reached End of the World. Stepping out, Sienna didn't even acknowledge the immense pressure change in the air, but she did acknowledge the giant building that looked like an old-school police station positioned directly in front of them.

"When we walk through here," Umeko started, finding an odd hole in the side of the building that she must have used to get in there the first time, "you can't turn on any lights or use Fire at all, because Cora will probably notice that you're there. And most of all, don't press any buttons," Umeko shivered, "just trust me on that one." She paused, and pointed them in the direction of the first staircase, "I know the way up to her anatomy study room. You'll notice it when you see it. Then, it's all up for guesses."

"What made you stop going?" Naminé asked, and Sienna was relieved that she was still speaking at all, although guilt still surged through her being.

"Remember the button thing I mentioned?" Umeko asked, summoning Starseeker as a few Shadows appeared. She and Sora thwacked them out of the way with no problem, and then she continued, "I found a blue button beneath one of her post-it notes on the wall. It sent me down to some kind of a prison chamber. At least the building didn't self-destruct." She paused as a few more Shadows and some Knights appeared. Sienna took a few of these; all of them knew, however, that the Heartless guards would probably get worse as they went on.

"Interesting keyblade you've got there," Umeko mentioned lightheartedly to Sienna before Origins of Nothing disappeared from her right hand. "I wonder why you've got a 'blade like that. They're supposed to be doomed."

Sienna gulped. "Doomed?" she asked as they continued walking. Riku and Roxas had explained to her the purpose of the keyblade, of how the legend said that they were both supposed to return to the Realm of Nothingness, but Sienna didn't want to believe it. Roxas didn't, either, that much was obvious.

"They say that, eventually, the bearer of that keyblade's heart will be stolen. But they always become a Nobody, if that's the case; they become a high level Heartless, too. Either way, it's just a legend. I'm sure you'll be fine." Umeko stated, but she could not ignore the stare burning a hole in the back of her head. She led them through another corridor, which, thankfully, was entirely empty, "Okay, what?" Umeko asked, a little impatient.

Sienna recoiled. "I was just wondering, how do you know so much? Didn't you barely start using the keyblade, and that was just to get your friend back?" Granted, Sienna was just speaking out of nothing- she was relying on Riku's half-assed story of what Umeko and Cora's friendship was _probably_ like. **Author's Note: Refer to the end of Chapter Seven.**

Umeko smiled. "When Cora and I were best friends, even a little after she was given the keyblade, she told me a lot of things. A lot of her theories, a lot of her experiments; she was smart. Leave it to her to be smart enough to find out exactly how to control the darkness; her heart was weak before then, even though she was strong enough to wield a keyblade. At that point, it was either know enough to take over the Heartless, or get taken over by the Heartless yourself. Guess which one she chose?"

Sienna laughed. She actually enjoyed talking to Umeko; this was the kind of girl that she wouldn't mind having as a friend throughout the school years. Then again, she was looking forward to having Sora, Kairi, and maybe even Riku as friends once the school year started up again, if that was even important. Curiously, Sienna asked, "What happened exactly with your and Cora's friendship?

Umeko gave Sienna a sad smile. "Well, things were going great between us for a while. She got the Keyblade, and I helped her learn how to wield it because my uncle had given me lessons with a sword for fun once. She was deathly afraid of the Heartless, though. Every time a Heartless would show up, she would tremble. I could see it. When she finally discovered the secret to controlling them, she fell into the darkness, anyway." Umeko got quiet, and they turned the corner into another room. Many Soldier Heartless appeared this time, and she helped to destroy them along with Sienna.

"After that, she forgot about me," Umeko continued, destroying the last Soldier in the room. Sienna looked around at the room; it was obvious that this was Cora's Anatomy Study room. Everyone stopped, now, Umeko in the center of the room, to listen to the rest of her story. "She was so far in the darkness, that she physically remembered me, but she forgot about her friendship. She learned about the eighth Princess from King Mickey, who had also helped her learn how to wield a Keyblade, and set out to find her, leaving me behind. The rest is history," she sighed, "but King Mickey gave me a Starseeker- God knows where he gets these things- because I had been so close to Cora, that her ability to wield the keyblade kind of rubbed off on me in the end. So I went after her."

Sienna's jaw must have been hanging. She looked over at Riku, who had a smug and knowing look on his face. His 'guessed' explanation of their history had been right down to the very dot. Maybe, just maybe, Sienna was gaining a lot more respect for Riku than she had when he became a jerk to everyone.

"We should pick a direction to go," Umeko said, breaking the silence. Sora stepped up to the front of the group, asserting his dominance once more, now that it was fair game as to where the right direction was.

"There are two doors. I say we go through the left one," Sora began, opening the door. Several Air Pirates buzzed out of the closet that Sora had just opened the door to, slowly taunting them all in the air. Before they could even get close to anybody, however, Naminé sent out an Advanced Dancer, which she let destroy the four Air Pirates with ease. The Advanced Dancer gave a bow before she disappered.

"I'll just keep leading the way," Umeko suggested, patting Sora on the shoulder. Sora crossed his arms; he wasn't used to being a follower. Still, they walked through the next door, which led to the stairs above them, and a long corridor. "Based on the artchitecture of old police houses like this, the escape routes were probably really close," Umeko began, thinking out loud, "so we probably want to try the door that's closest to the stairs.

Bingo. The door led to another hallway, one that was long and straight, perfect for a quick escape if someone had to go arrest somebody or run over to a burning building, or something of the sort. "I think we're close," Roxas mentioned offhandedly. He looked at Sienna, who nodded in agreement, and smiled.

"As long as we don't walk into any more Air Pirate-infested closets," Sienna started, giggling as she looked up at Roxas, "I'm fine."

The straight walking lasted a long time, up until they finally got to a set of grand doors, white and blue in their appearance, probably leading to the room for the Chief of Police, originally. Slowly, Umeko wiggled the doorknob. "Locked," she murmured, but pulled out her keyblade. The idea was genius; if Cora didn't want Hades or Cruella inside of the room at all, she could just lock it. The original lock was probably in ruins somewhere, but a keyblade could unlock anything. She wiggled the doornob again, and opened it up slowly and softly.

There was a corner of a hallway before the room started, but Umeko stopped everyone; she could hear Cora speaking, but she was speaking to another voice, a male one that none of them recognized. "I told you, I haven't found her yet," Cora's voice came, trembling slightly. She sounded persistent. "I don't even know who she is."

The man's voice chuckled and responded, "I think I've got a good idea of who she is, and so do you. But down to business, have you disposed of the other keyblade wielders yet?" There was no response, and if there was, it was too soft to hear, "That includes your old friend, Umeko, I hope you realize." Umeko twitched, and did not hold back. She ran the corner to go face Cora, and the rest of them followed her.

Standing in the room alone, however, confused and annoyed, was Cora. Where had the man gone that was speaking to her. "I see you made it out," she said, her amazing ability to state the obvious glowing through again, "and you brought the others with you. This isn't a good time, I'm in a meeting," Cora said boredly, but let Impending Darkness appear in her left hand, along with a new, golden keyblade that none of them had seen before appear in her right. Obviously, she had gotten a gift from someone.

"I don't see anybody," Umeko said, perturbed.

Cora lowered her keyblade and growled, and said something that nobody in the room had expected her to say. "Get out," she said, "get out and run! Thomas wants to kill all of you. I've been working under his command this whole time. Get-" Her voice was cut off by a man quickly appearing out of nothing from behind her, covering her mouth with a gloved hand. Cora could have probably easily escaped, but she seemed helpless.

Standing behind her, restraining her, was a man who looked about nineteen or twenty. His forest green eyes, resembling Umeko's slightly, were rimmed with black, which most of his body seemed to be made up of. His hair was matted, a mixture of red and black, and he had a smug expression on his face. _This must be Thomas,_ Sienna thought.

And then, another unexpected move.

"All of us?" Riku had called out, worried. "I thought you and Cora said that if I brought you Sienna, you would leave everyone else out of this."

Suddenly, everything made sense. Riku had been the one feeding information about all of them to Cora, Cora and Riku's quick glances were exchanging more than just looks, but knowing and understanding something beyond anyone else's understanding. Riku had been helping out the enemy, trying to give up Sienna to save the rest of his friends; at first, Sienna was hurt, but then she relaxed, sort of expecting it. She didn't belong with the keyblade wielders. Riku was right to try to give her up to save them.

"And that was before I saw their threat," Thomas responded, his voice obviously that of the man who had been speaking to Cora beforehand. This man didn't seem to need a keyblade, however; he simply motioned forward, and Riku sprang out of the crowd, into Thomas's other arm. Both of the keyblade wielders were being restrained by Thomas. "Riku sold you out, Sienna, so he could protect his friends. And I'll bet you were just beginning to trust this boy, weren't you?" Thomas asked, amused.

Sienna slunk back, but refused to look at Riku's antifreeze eyes. He was doing it for his friends; but she was beginning to trust him. Sora cursed himself lightly; Riku had not been acting the same for the past few days, and he should have known why. Maybe if he had confronted Riku earlier, he could have stopped it.

"And now," Thomas laughed, letting some of his fingers drum over Riku's cheek as he held his mouth closed, "your _friend_ is slowly slipping back into the darkness he belongs in." He then looked back up at the rest of them. "It's true, I've been calling the shots the entire time." He grinned.

"I don't understand," Sienna finally spoke up, steadying her voice. She wanted to move forward, to destroy this man, but he would probably destroy Riku if she did so. No amount of betrayal on his part could justify his death. "Who _are_ you?"

"Why don't you ask Axel?" Thomas asked, amused.

Instantly, every head was turned towards Axel. He was, by far, the most infuriated out of the group, his black gloved hands clenched, and his bright green eyes squinting out of anger. "That's Thomas," he started, "my Heartless."

**Author's Note: Dun dun DUN! It's Axel's Heartless! Gasp! xD Okay, I'm done. So, like I said, the next chapter's also pretty important. I'll admit, chapters twelve and thirteen are going to be a little boring, but fourteen through sixteen are going to finish up the fanfiction, and seventeen will be the epilogue. Stay tuned, and please review!**


	11. Pitiful

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

PITIFUL

-NOTE-

I hope by the title you can tell why this chapter is special and important! xD

So, I got the last chapter up late last night- er, early this morning, because I didn't think I would have time to do this one. We'll see if I finish; we're going to some kind of art festival, but I'm starting this before we go just to see how much I can get done. Anyway, Riku was revealed to be a traitor and it turns out that Axel's Heartless is the one that's been working behind the scenes! Dun dun dun! xD Anyway, enjoy!

-/NOTE-

Sienna stared at Axel in disbelief, and she noticed everyone around her doing the same. Axel seemed surprised and annoyed, so they all could assume that he had nothing to do with this; but it just amazed all of them that after so long, Axel's Heartless would come out of the shadows to try and gain the power that Axel never got. All of them could see the slight resemblences, but none of them could _believe_ it.

"He's right," Thomas said, smugly. As he smiled down on the rest of them with half-closed eyes, Roxas could also see a little bit of Axel in him, and that was possibly what bothered him the most; if anything, anyone 'evil' shouldn't be like Axel at all, but Thomas managed to make that happen. Roxas grimaced. "I'm Axel's Heartless. Once I use the eighth Princess to open Kingdom Hearts and let my brethren out, we will dominate your pathetic light realm."

"Pathetic light realm?!" Naminé asked, as Thomas had obviously hit a soft spot. Thomas did not have a negative reaction to this, no, instead he looked almost pleased that he had made Naminé so angry, which was a difficult feat. "The only one pathetic here is you, that you actually have to try and control keyblade wielders to do your dirty work! Why don't you fight for yourself?" Naminé asked, sending out three Advanced Dancers.

Roxas and the others stared at her in disbelief; they could never have guessed that Naminé had such low tolerance for people like that, but she had never really been faced against such an annoying enemy, anyway, especially not the Heartless of one of her friends. Just to make Naminé angrier, it seemed, Thomas laughed.

"Coming from the little Nobody that just sent three other Nobodies at me. And you're telling me to fight my own battles?" As Thomas laughed again, two black Chakrams appeared in his hand, somehow sharper and shinier than Axel's ever were. In moments, he swung them at all three of the Nobodies, and they were destroyed instantaneously. He smiled, "Where do you think Cora got all of her strength from, Umeko?" Thomas asked, his gaze now turning towards the blond-brunette.

Umeko's hands were shaking, and she looked over at Cora, still restrained and silenced, but stuck against the opposite wall- some form of Thomas's magic that he used so he could throw his Chakram at the Nobodies. Riku was close to her. Cora's eyes were filled with something that Umeko couldn't quite point out; she wanted to say pain, but it looked so much stronger than that. Umeko gulped and turned her attention back towards Thomas, "King Mickey and I helped her. She studied the darkness so she could face her fears."

Thomas walked dangerously close to Umeko, and Sora, Roxas and Kairi, who were closest to the front, pointed Ultima, Oathkeeper, Oblivion and Destiny Blade threateningly at Axel's Heartless, but he paid them no mind, "And who, Umeko, did you think was teaching her about the darkness?"

Along the other wall, still restrained, Cora lowered her head. "I trained her the entire year for this day, the day that she would take charge and find the eighth Princess, the Forgotten Heart, the One who Fell in the Darkness for me, so we could open Kingdom Hearts. I did this in exchange for power, I have her the power she needed to defeat the Heartless that she feared. And look where that got her." He smiled, and turned his head towards his prisoners, the strong Cora and the traitor Riku.

"You know what else I did?" Thomas continued, obviously enjoying the surprised looks on the Keyblade Wielders- and Axel's- faces. "I told her to use Hades and Cruella to send all of you on wild goose chases, having to re-lock all of the worlds up. I gave her enough power to create hearts- she could _create_ the heart of the world! All this time she's been studying anatomy, it was so she could find out _why_ she had this power to create hearts. You see, I didn't exactly tell her that she could do so." He looked over at Cora, who still hadn't looked up from looking down at her feet. Riku, however, had a look of pure fury on his face.

"If she wanted, she could have created a new heart for herself- this heart could have been pure, if only one person could even get to her to convince her that she was traveling down the wrong path." His eyes bore holes into Umeko's, metaphorical ones, of course, but holes nonetheless. "But it seemed that nobody cared enough to try and pull her out of the darkness, anyway."

"I cared!" Umeko cried with tears in her eyes, "I risked my life trying to find this shortcut to End of the World so I could find her and convince her otherwise!" She wiped a tear from her face, slinking back somehow.

"You didn't do enough for her," Thomas laughed, "what you needed to do was become strong to save her. You're weak, Umeko, strong enough to find your way here, but too weak to fight your best friend. The only way you could save her would be to be strong enough, which you lack. But that, I could teach you, if you would follow us back into the darkness and help us to open Kingdom Hearts."

Umeko didn't even hesitate. "In your dreams." she whispered.

"It's too bad," Thomas began, "You could have been so strong. It seems Cora chose the right path, but did you?" Sora suddenly recoiled; this was all beginning to sound more and more familiar as the conversation and threats went on- his mind traveled back to when Riku offered him into the darkness. Sora had almost accepted, as well, but instead, Riku had chosen that path, and Sora spent his whole time looking for Kairi, and mostly, looking to save Riku from the darkness that consumed him. And that time, it was because of Xehanort's Heartless. History really did repeat itself.

"Yeah, a fat lot of good that did you!" Sienna barked now, pulling Sora out of his daydreaming as he stared at Riku's hurt and angry face, and Naminé had slunked back once Thomas had pointed out her hipocrisy. She walked up to the front of the crowd, and into the little space between Umeko and Thomas, trying to size him up, almost succeeding. "You work that hard for more power, but I don't see the eighth Princess of Heart, do you?" Sienna asked, stretching her arms out at her side.

"Yeah," Roxas said, his low voice slowly getting louder, "Where _is_ the eighth Princess? Who is she? We sure as hell haven't seen a sign of her!"

This time, Thomas smiled, and backed off slightly. "You see," he started, "I already have the eighth Princess. And you have seen a sign of her- think about it. A poor, pure-hearted little girl who fell into the darkness." Thomas smiled, "She was the forgotten Princess, the one that could open any door to any world, even the door to Kingdom Hearts, if she just put her mind to it. Who do you know got so far by just putting her mind to it? Who do you know fell into the darkness and lost herself? Myself, I just figured this out a little while ago. How could I have been so stupid?" He laughed maniacally.

"Who is it?" Sora asked, angrily.

Thomas slowly motioned over to Cora, whose eyes were wide and scared as she was pinned against the wall.

"_Cora's_ the eighth Princess?" Sienna asked, disbelieving, followed by a chorus of other 'Why's and 'How's.

"None of us knew that she was the eighth Princess, it seemed," Thomas laughed, "myself, I had been curious all through the time that I had been training her. At first, it didn't seem possible. Her heart was too weak," he paused, "but now, everything fits. A weak heart doesn't mean an impure one. A weak heart means it's just crushed easily. Thankfully, I fixed that- the only strong heart is a dark one."

"You're wrong!" Sienna barked, calling upon Origins of Nothing, and pointing it straight at Thomas's neck. Thomas studied the keyblade expectantly.

"I see," he said, "it's fitting that you would be stuck with that keyblade, what with your future." He smiled. "You really think that you belong with these people, don't you?" Thomas asked, boring into her thoughts, "You thought that if you could just change yourself enough to care more about what they did and less about what you do that you would belong, when all this time, Riku was just selling you out to Cora."

"He did it to protect his friends," Sienna said more quietly. She knew this was true, but she still tried to convince herself more than she tried to convince Thomas as she spoke, her hand trembling but keeping pointed at Thomas's neck.

"Which didn't include you."

Whatever magic had kept Riku quiet, he managed to spit it out. "Don't listen to him!" Riku shouted back in his low voice, "Yes, that was originally the plan, but the more I got to know you the less I wanted to do it! The last time Thomas and Cora came to me for information, I refused, but Thomas used the darkness to make me do otherwise. I didn't have a choice after that, I couldn't even talk about it until now!" _The whistle_, Sienna thought, _when we saw Axel for the first time and the whistle happened, that's who Riku was running to. Riku was the one who sold Axel out as being a spy, and got him hurt._ Sienna looked over at Axel, who was still glaring daggers at Thomas. _Everything makes sense._

"I believe you," Sienna cried out, and she thought that she saw Riku give an apologetic smile- he really was sorry for how he had been, even though his secretiveness wasn't even his choice most of the time. He really was a good friend.

Much to their surprise, in fury, Thomas grabbed the length of Origins of Darkness and spun it around, sending Sienna flying across the room. Roxas moved up to try and attack him, but a barrier stopped the rest of them from making it in. For once, this was all Sienna.

Sienna, however, hadn't given up that quickly. She sprang off of the point on the ground where she had fallen, charging at Thomas with her keyblade out. She just barely managed to avoid one of his black Chakrams, but the other one sliced a wound in her left arm. She hissed, but with her right, held up Origins of Nothing at him, and shouted, "Gravira!" A spell that she had only seen, but never performed.

Thomas fell to the ground, and struggled to get up, but Gravira hadn't quite worn off yet. With her good arm, Sienna ran up to the Heartless and sliced him a few times with her keyblade, but a shadow from the ground tripped her. As Thomas got up again, he sent another Chakram at her, right towards her head.

The chakram stabbed into the ground an inch away from her forehead as Sienna wrenched to get out of the way, and she then used the handle of the chakram to steady herself up. This time, Thomas was sending waves of darkness towards her. These weren't quite as easy to avoid as the chakram was; the more she ran, the more they followed her. One finally wrapped itself around her wrists, but with some intense pulling, she freed herself, although it left gashes on the lower part of her hands and her wrists.

"Sienna!" Roxas cried out, even though he knew that she couldn't hear him. Naminé, who did hear, however, turned the other way. She either didn't want to see the fight or didn't want to hear what Roxas was shouting.

"You're weak, Sienna," Thomas growled, sending a fury of black-flamed chakrams at her, she just barely avoided them the first time around, but they left scratches of cuts all down her arms, and one in her stomach, "you've always been weak! Riku was right to offer you up instead of his friends; you're a waste of the air they breathe."

"At least I breathe, Heartless!" Sienna shouted back, finally running up to him with her Origins of Nothing. She sent a flurry of blizzards his way, and when she was sure that he could see nothing past them, she stabbed him in the stomach. When she pulled the keyblade out, there was no blood, but darkness slipped off of it like smoke from dry ice. It was amazing that he was just a Heartless; he looked and acted so human.

"You breathe the air of the weak! I've already cut off the roads to Kingdom Hearts, and I'm going there with the eighth Princess! You're not stopping me!" Thomas summoned at least thirty Soldiers and two Fat Bandits towards her, but Sienna couldn't be bothered by them. She slashed at Thomas with her keyblade, but a Soldier knocked her down. Three Soldiers then charged after her, but she pushed herself up and destroyed them quickly. She put a shield around herself quickly, the strongest one she could muster even if it wasn't all that strong, and charged at Thomas.

He broke the shield quickly with only one of his chakrams, and then stabbed her in the stomach with one of them. Sienna cried out and fell to the ground, and all of the Heartless that were surrounding her disappeared except for Thomas. Thomas rushed over to Riku and Cora (Riku had been shouting words of encouragement during the fight, another reason that Sienna decided to trust and forgive him), and they disappeared into nothing.

As the barrier broke, Roxas was the first to run up to Sienna, who was on her hands and knees on the ground, blood pouring from her hands, but mostly her stomach. Sora, from the other side of the room, was pointing Ultima at her, and wasting all of his magical energy with, "Cura, cura, cura, cura." That managed to stop the bleeding and turn the cuts into scabs, but it didn't stop the hurting. Roxas took her into a careful hug and buried his face in her hair. "You did great," he reassured her.

Sienna wrapped her arms around him, but could say nothing. She didn't even feel the wounds once Roxas hugged her, she felt completely numb. When they broke apart, she took a long look in Roxas's eyes, and then at the rest of the group, "They've gone to Kingdom Hearts. The dark realm," Sienna paused, "he said that he's cut off all of the roads to the dark realm." Sienna looked down at her knees. They were also scabbed up, skinned from when she had fallen. For once, she didn't care about the two holes in her expensive Abercrombie and Fitch jeans. She didn't care about her clothes at all.

"Not all of them," Sora reassured her, walking up to the two of them. "Cid knows a lot of shortcuts, one that we should have asked him for earlier," Sora looked over at Umeko thankfully, as she had been the one to show them the shortcut to End of the World, "we should go talk to him. I'm sure he'll have a way for us to make it there. It's got to take them a day or two to prepare to open Kingdom Hearts. We'll make it."

Sienna was silent. Roxas muttered something that sounded like, "I hope so." Right now, all Sienna wanted was to find the way to Kingdom Hearts.

xxx

"Ye need another way to get inta tha Dark Realm?" Cid asked, and he quickly flicked his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. "I'll check for ye, but from what I can see, all a tha roads've been cut off."

Sienna was quiet, "That's what Thomas said," she muttered, "he said exactly that he cut off the roads to Kingdom Hearts. The only way we'd be able to make it through there is from darkness, we can't even use the realm of Nothingness like Roxas, Naminé and Axel can." Sienna repressed a sob. Aerith had covered her scabs in bandages to prevent them from ripping, but the pain had finally caught up to her.

"It's times like these that I wish the Realm of Nothingess was interconnected to something other than a place that you've been already. But I guess that would destroy the point of the Realm of Nothingess." Axel frowned, but Sienna chuckled. She needed some of Axel's comical abilities at that point.

"Aha!" the blond navigator said, so loudly that everyone in the room, including the mellow Aerith, had jumped. He pointed to the screen excitedly, and Sora ran up to it, seeing something that no one else could see. "Ye see this here darkened road? It's covered in darkness, but I'm sure that if ye lock up a couple a more worlds, ye can use it. I'd say about three oughtta do the trick." Cid smiled proudly.

"Great!" Sora shouted, and then looked towards Sienna. "See, I told you there was a way! Now we just have to open up three more worlds. Do you think we could all split into groups of three now that we've got Umeko and Axel?"

Sienna looked over at Axel, who nodded excitedly, and Umeko, who seemed to worried to want to be with them. She wasn't exactly a team player, as she had made evident the first time they met, insisting that she go and look for Cora alone, but she knew when to consult others, so they asked her to go with them. Thankfully, she had agreed. "Okay," Sora said, "Why don't Naminé, Roxas and Umeko go to..." Sora looked at the map, "Land of Dragons, Kairi and I will go to Halloweentown, and Axel and Sienna can go to Traverse Town?"

Sienna was mostly upset that she wouldn't be with Roxas, but she thought that being away from him for a little while would make Naminé feel better. "Are you sticking me with the world that has the defense system because you feel sorry for me and my wounds?" Sienna asked lightheartedly, smirking at Sora.

Sora laughed. "Yeah."

"At least you're honest."

Sora sighed, however, sinking back in the couch, in between Roxas and Axel. "I just don't understand why Riku would have done all that," he admitted to the group, the first time he had talked about Riku since they made their way out of End of the World, although they could all feel the question burning in his thoughts.

"He was just trying to protect you guys," Sienna said, "and he saw that he made a mistake later and tried to fix it, you heard him. We shouldn't be worrying about Riku's mini-betrayal here, who we should be worrying about is Thomas; stopping him, and pulling Cora back out of the darkness."

Roxas smiled. "I knew you should have been a politician."

Sienna laughed. "I'm a keyblade wielder."

**Author's Note: That was exciting! It's not often I get to create a cool fight scene like that. xD Anyway, like I said, the next two chapters are likely to be boring, it'll just be the pairs and the one triplet going through their world and locking them up. Chapters fourteen through sixteen are the interesting ones! Thank you for reading, please review!**


	12. Through the Eyes of a Fly on the Wall

CHAPTER TWELVE:

THROUGH THE EYES OF A FLY ON THE WALL

-NOTE-

So, I was thinking, and I said that these next two chapters will be very slow and boring, so I think I'll condense it into this one chapter. Even though I think we need a longer break; If you think about it, we just found out two very important things in the last two chapters. Riku's been feeding over information to Cora, who actually works for Axel's Heartless, Thomas. And Thomas just discovered and told the group that Cora was the eighth Princess all along! Gasp. Okay, I'll shut up now. But for the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I own my plot AND Kingdom Hearts. Except I don't own the latter. Not really. ;o

Oh, and PS, I was thinking of making a sequel to this fanfiction, but I really don't have many readers/reviewers, so I'll either want a certain amount of reviews before I make the sequel so I know that it will have readers, or I'll make the sequel so that you didn't have to have read this one; you know, short explanation in the first chapter. xD We'll see.

-/NOTE-

The road down to the camp at The Land of Dragons was an uncomfortable one, to say the least. Roxas, Naminé and Umeko all walked in an awkward silence; it was obvious why Naminé didn't want to make conversation, Umeko was probably just interested in getting the job done and getting to Cora, but Roxas had nobody to talk to, so he just crossed his arms and walked down the way.

To their surprise, Sora's directions did not lead them to a camp, but a large empire, one with such a huge castle that they could see it miles away. The problem was, there were no people walking around, doing their shopping, or visiting the castle, and they were there in the middle of broad daylight. "Where is everyone?" Naminé finally spoke, an Roxas sighed; a little bit of the tension was relieved at that moment.

"Maybe they're afraid of the Heartless," Umeko suggested, "looks like your little group has left this world alone for a while." Roxas and Naminé both frowned at Umeko; she obviously didn't take their 'little group' seriously enough, when she was going along with them just so she could find and rescue her friend. Then again, Roxas and Naminé only gave a little bit of a crap about Cora because she seemed to be sorry for what she had done, but they mostly wanted Riku back. They needed Cora back, however, because Thomas was going to use her to open Kingdom Hearts; maybe Riku would try and stop him.

Roxas, for once, didn't have a comment. Although he had become more outgoing himself since he met Sienna, there were some things that he knew to just keep his mouth shut over. Instead he suggested, "Why don't we just walk through the town and look for people. Maybe we'll find the keyhole on our way."

Naminé smiled, "I think that's a good idea. And we don't have to worry about Cora, Hades or Cruella bothering us anymore." Roxas grinned back at her; maybe talking to Naminé wouldn't be as hard as he thought it was.

Just their luck, the first three steps that they had taken, several Fat Bandits and some Heartless that none of them recognized appeared. Before anyone else, Umeko flashed out Star Seeker, but next came Oathkeeper and Oblivion from Roxas. Naminé must have been worried about these fights, so she sent out seven Advanced Dancers towards them. The Fat Bandits didn't stand a chance against them, but the odd Heartless that they hadn't seen before- ones that looked like shadows, but were red- seemed to not be fazed by the Nobodies or magic at all. For that, Umeko used physical.

She was surprisingly good at the hack-and-slash method of the keyblade, probably from when her uncle had taught her how to wield a sword. She did, after all, help teach Cora how to use a keyblade. It was almost too bad that there was a third help besides her and King Mickey- the one who made her strong just to fall into the darkness.

Umeko still couldn't believe that Cora was the eighth Princess.

When that set of Heartless were gone, Roxas looked around at the tens of houses that were surrounding them. It was absolutely amazing how old- and how Chinese- they looked. He wanted to walk into one of them and see the interior, but that would be breaking and entering, and that's not the best way to introduce yourself to a new world. Instead, Roxas, Naminé and Umeko continued forward.

xxx

Traverse Town was beautiful. Sienna wasn't sure, but it looked like it was always nighttime outside. In the First District, the buildings twinkled with the dim lights glowing from the towering buildings above them. In the center was a concrete courtyard, and next to it a beautiful outdoor restaurant. Sienna let out the breath she didn't realize that she had been holding, and spoke, "I don't think we'll have a problem with Heartless here."

"Not in the first district," Axel admitted, scratching his head through his spiky red hair. How much hair gel every day did that _take_? "Second and third district are probably choc full of them." Axel smiled a little.

"Choc full of them," Sienna mocked, "that sounds like something my mother would say," she commented unnecessarily as they made their way through the first district- they saw two large double doors when Axel stopped to smirk down at the keyblade wielder.

"Well, I might remind you of your mother, but you remind me of my annoying little sister back when I was still human." Axel grinned and let his two chakrams appear in each of his hands, but he used his free fingers to open the door.

Sienna looked up at Axel in surprise. "You had a sister?"

"Fuck no," Axel responded, pushing the doors open. Sienna smiled; Axel definitely had personality and a sense of humor, it made sense why Roxas was best friends with him; Axel definitely had something that the rest of Organization XIII didn't seem to have, but then again, Sienna had never met them.

She then remembered what Axel had told her, how Hades was made to revive the rest of Organization XIII. Something told her that this would be potentially problematic in the future, but like Roxas said, they weren't causing any harm so far. **Author's Note: Just reminding you of what the sequel, if there is one, will be about!**

The moment they stepped through to the second district, Knights and Shadows bombarded them. Sienna was still aching from her fight with Thomas not too long before, but it had also made her more experienced. She and Axel destroyed the Heartless in nothing flat; she was surprised it used to be so difficult for her.

"Where do you think the keyhole is for this world?" Sienna asked.

Axel grimaced in concentration, "We could always ask them," he said, pointing to three small ducks walking around in the center of the second district, completely unaware, or maybe uncaring, of the Heartless surrounding them. One had a green hat, the other had a red one, and the last one had a blue hat. The red one was observing something on the floor, and all three of them were standing in an equilateral triangle shape.

"No, you dunderhead!" the blue-hatted one shouted in a croaky voice that made Sienna want to gag. She looked up at Axel- he didn't seem the happiest about their odd diction, either. They seemed to be arguing about something, but it was probably something meaningless. Still, Axel walked up to them in an attempt to ask them where the keyhole was, if these ducks could even tell them that much.

"Hey-" Axel started, but was interrupted by the red-hatted one barking back at the blue-hatted one.

"Do you have any better ideas?" the red-hatted one combatted back, an angry look on his face that would probably remind Sora of Donald. Where were they, by the way, Sienna thought. They thought that possibly they would meet up with those two sometime, but they hadn't yet. Maybe that was why Sora wasn't quite so peppy.

"I said _hey_!" Axel growled, his chakram burning in his hands. The three small ducks looked over at Axel nervously as if they just noticed him being there, and backed up a few paces in unison.

"Yeah?" the small duck with the green hat asked.

"What are your names?" Sienna asked nicely, walking up to them. She had gotten the whole 'manners' thing down pat at that point, and the ducks all seemed to calm down the moment that they noticed that, unlike her companion, she had manners. **Author's Note: It's so weird referring to them as 'the three ducks'. xD**

"I'm Huey!" the red-hatted one exclaimed.

The blue-hatted one said next, "Dewey!"

"Louie!" the last one cried out, and Sienna frowned. Not the easiest names to remember. She was good with names, but not that good. Still, she slapped on a smile, even if it was a distressed one, and told the Huey, Dewey and Louie her name.

"I'm Sienna," she stated apologetically, "I'm sorry it doesn't end in 'uie'."

"What did your mom have against you three when you were born?" Axel laughed, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie backed up once more. Sienna had to admit that she was growing a soft spot in her heart for Roxas's friend, but she wished that he could be a little more polite- but maybe that was what made him so humorous.

"We were wondering," Sienna said a little loudly to speak over the ducks' whimpering, "if you've seen a keyhole anywhere around here?" Sienna realized that this was framed a little strangely, so she tried to rephrase it, "I mean-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Huey said a little rudely, stepping to the front of the group. Sienna could tell who was the leader out of these three. "We know what you're talking about, we've been working in the Item shop for years," he waved that off, "we've seen a keyhole, but we've been guarding it until we could find a keyblade wielder. How do we know that you guys aren't going to try and conceal it with something?"

This duck was surprisingly sharp based on how he looked. Without hesitating, Sienna called upon Origins of Nothing, and Dewey and Louie gasped at it. Huey tried to keep his cool, but both Axel and Sienna could tell that he was just as surprised as his brothers.

xxx

Sora and Kairi had been exploring Halloweentown for the better part of an hour. They were the first to get dropped off at their world, but there was no sign of a keyhole. There was no sign of anybody or anything- the world was even relatively barren of Heartless, minus a few Shadows here or there. That was their only clue that the world hadn't been sealed up, at least not from their guess.

Kairi, who was dressed as some sort of a witch, was frowning and dragging her feet. "I know it's nowhere near Halloween time yet, but," she sighed, and pushed her crimson hair behind her ear, "we haven't found anybody or a keyhole anywhere."

Just as Kairi pointed this out, a rather fat figure went running throughout the world, passing them up in Guillotine Square where they had stopped to rest. They stood up from the edge of the fountain to see what was chasing the two-faced mayor, and found themselves face-to-face with a giant Morning Star- definitely not Sora's favorite Heartless.

"Is this what's been keeping them inside?" Sora asked, helplessly. Sure, this Heartless was a lot larger than normal Morning Stars, but it was no reason to keep everything like a wasteland. At least with the Mayor they would have a better time of finding out where the keyhole to that world was.

"Let's get him, Sora!" Kairi said cheerfully, summoning Destiny's Blade. Sora couldn't help but to admire how quickly and well Kairi had become a fighter, but she still stayed sweet and innocent. He admired it, and he loved it. He summoned Ultima- which he was more than excited to use- to run towards the Heartless.

Immediately as they approached it, it did a deadly spin that would leave any normal human dizzy. Kairi managed to back off in time, but Sora had been knocked back. It was no matter, as he regained control halfway through the air, and charged back at him. He began thwacking him with the keyblade in a series of moves in the air- Sora was best at aerial combos and attacks. **Author's Note: At least, my Sora in Kingdom Hearts II is. I love his aerial attacks the best. xD**

Kairi began attacking the creature at it's thin legs, which was a good target, because they collapsed on it easily, allowing Sora to attack its rounded body much easier. After she had caused the Morning Star to collapse, she also joined him in attacking it with combinations, which she wasn't as good at, but any help counted.

Finally, the Morning Star exploded in on itself, and Sora smiled at their work, and the mega-potion that the creature had left behind for them. He shoved it in his pocket- for some reason, he felt that this would be needed during the inevitable fight with Thomas.

"Mayor," Sora called after giving Kairi a meaningful look, and the terrified mayor, his face flipped to the upset face, rushed over to him. "Mayor, it's okay, I killed it. Do you know where the keyhole to this world is?"

The mayor frowned, "Didn't you already find it the last time you were here, Sora?" His frown grew, remembering all of the havoc that had been caused the last two times that they had arrived at that world- not very fun at all.

"No, new ones have been added. Do you have any idea where it is?" Sora asked, hopefully. Much to his dismay, the mayor shook his head.

"No, but Sora, we need your help with something. Sally's been looking for ingredients for a cake that she's making to celebrate the fourth of July of all things; she's trying to get Jack's mind off of Christmas. Could you help us?"

Sora recoiled. He knew that they had left around the thirtieth of June, but he didn't realize that it was already Independence Day. Logically, it made sense, considering the amount of nights they had spent at the Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion, but it just didn't feel like they had been there for that long already.

Sora sighed, and looked back at Kairi, who nodded and talked for him, "We're already here, Sora, and maybe we'll find the keyhole on the way." She smiled and looked at the mayor. "What's the first thing she needs?"

"It's a special herb found in the graveyard- you'll know it when you see it, the tips of its leaves are purple. She just needs one of those, but everyone's been too afraid to go to the graveyard- that's where that- that... thing came from. Next, you need to get yeast, which I'm sure Jack has in his house, but he hasn't left since Sandy Claws kicked him out of that blasted Christmas place again. The last one, I can probably get on my own."

"We'll do it," Kairi stated, and looked at Sora to lead the way to the graveyard.

He did so rather quickly; Kairi had gone with him to it before, but she wasn't paying attention to the directions there, just whether or not they could find a keyhole, which obviously, they didn't. The graveyard here wasn't exactly eerie, but it was rather fitting for such a dark atmosphere. If anything, it was like seeing a house in a neighborhood. Something entirely expected. "Here it is," Kairi called.

"You found it?" Sora called back, and ran up to Kairi, who was bending over a grave that Sora recognized all too well. He backed up slightly. She retrieved the weed-looking herb from the ground, but attached to the other end of it was a dog that looked like it was a ghost, with one sphere for its nose attached at the end of a long muzzle.

"Zero!" Sora called out. Zero perked up, and let go of the herb (which Kairi was horrified to discover that she was fighting over it with a ghost dog) and floated up to Sora. He began to lick Sora's face excitedly, although it felt like nothing to Sora, at least he knew that by somebody, if not Jack, he was missed.

"Why doesn't Zero come with us?" Sora asked Kairi, who was frowning at the idea. Zero didn't seem to like her much. His happy expression changed immediately as he discovered the girl who had taken his herb from her. "Maybe he can convince Jack to come out of his house so we can get the yeast. They're pretty good friends."

Kairi grimaced, but she couldn't say no.

xxx

None of Naminé's Advanced Dancers had been destroyed during their raid through the Empire, searching for the keyhole or any Heartless trouble. Apparently, they were just as persistent as Naminé was on that day to get the job done; anything, she thought, anything to get her mind off of Roxas, even with him fighting right beside her, was a good thing.

"Why don't we go into the castle?" Roxas asked the two of them. Naminé nodded sullenly, but Umeko said nothing. Still, she showed that she had been listening, because she then headed the group up the many steps to the emperor's castle. It was true that Umeko liked to do things on her own, but it didn't make sense that when she was in a group she felt the need to be the leader, but Roxas supposed that he and Sora had done the same in the past.

"I don't think we'll need to," Naminé finally called, looking at the castle.

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked, him and Umeko just steps away from the door to the gigantic building. Naminé pointed forward and past him, and he didn' understand until he saw the keyole on the door, glimmering in a way that gave away that it was just not an ordinary keyhole. Plus, it was huge.

Umeko locked this one up before Roxas even got the chance, and then she moved ahead of them to bring them to the Gummi Ship, which, being the largest group, they were given. Plus, Umeko knew how to drive one better than Sora did. Naminé and Roxas looked at each other, laughing; they both could tell how independent Umeko was.

"Listen, Roxas," Naminé finally began as she was walking. She didn't know what she was thinking when she spouted off this in a flurry of words, but it was just something she had to get out. Plus, she was out of earshot of Umeko. "I really care about you. You know that- it might just be because I'm part of Kairi, and you're part of Sora. But I've always cared about you, and I want you to be happy." She paused, seeing the concerned look on Roxas's face. "So I want you to be with Sienna. I know she'll make you happy."

Roxas's heart stopped at that moment. Did Naminé just give him her blessing? They stopped in their tracks back to the Gummi Ship, and Roxas smiled at her. In a quick and warm embrace, Roxas gave her a hug as a thank-you. "I'm sorry," he finally said, "I care about you a lot, too, but... Sienna..."

"It's okay," Roxas could swear that he saw a tear in Naminé's eye, "I know. Besides," she paused, "if Nobodies are destined to fade, then we should die in a way that makes us the happiest. I think that would be with Sienna." Both of them knew that neither of them had hearts, but for some reason, they were special; they could feel. They didn't know if it was the same with other Nobodies, but they were always able to feel.

"I swear," Umeko looked back, her hands on her hips, but a tear was glimmering in one of her eyes. Was this scene actually _touching_ her? Although, Roxas could not compare her to a Heartless, because she cared enough about her best friend to go through Hell and high water to find her, but she usually seemed strictly business. "Sometimes I feel like I'm watching these things through the eyes of a fly on the wall."

xxx

"So just tell us where it is," Axel said, obviously unamused by Huey, Dewey and Louie's stalling to tell them the location of the keyblade. All of them thought it would be easier for these last three worlds, because they wouldn't have to ask around for the eighth princess _and_ the keyhole, but finding the keyhole in each world had still been a huge challenge, even on its very own.

Especially when they had three ducks hiding the location from them. _Ducks_.

"Fine," Dewey finally said, his assertiveness strong enough to rival Huey's, "but you owe us a huge favor." He walked off, leaving Huey a little bit peeved and Louie confused, but Axel and Sienna still followed them.

"This is the last time I ever want to deal with a trio of ducks," Axel said, and looked down at Sienna, smiling. Obviously, she had seen quite a few different parts of Axel's personality in that half an hour that they were trying to get Huey, Dewey and Louie to tell them the location of the keyhole. Many of those parts scared her.

"Too bad, then," Sienna smiled, "because you're going to have to deal with Sora, Riku and Kairi when we beat your Heartless."

Axel laughed loud enough to catch Louie's attention, who was still quite afraid of him. "I guess you're right. Kid, we have to hang out sometime. Roxas picked a good one." Sienna paused, and looked at Axel, blushing.

"How did you know-"

"Roxas is my best friend," Axel gave a smug wink at Sienna, "I know these things." Sienna wanted to comment on that, but she never really got the chance. She had occasional friends back at her old school, but that was just because she was popular- she got friends because of her skill with hair and makeup and her way with boys. And for once, she wondered where that girl went. She still had skills, but those didn't matter to her anymore. The only boy she had ever fallen head-over-heels for was Roxas. Did she have any friends? So far, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Naminé and Axel had been the closest things to true friends that she ever had, especially Axel. She saw Roxas in a different light, however.

"It's here," Huey said begrudgingly, pulling back a red blanket that was blocking the entrance to the corner of an area in second district, one where a keyhole that was etched in with chalk was placed in. They would have thought it to be just a prank, but getting a close look at it, it shone in that way that said it was the lock to the heart of the world.

And of course, Origins of Nothing began shaking. It's a key- it was in its nature to lock and unlock. Pointed straight at the keyhole, a small beam of light appeared, and it locked up the world. Heartless that had been watching them from afar disappeared before it did, nervous of not being able to make it back to End of the World. Huey, Dewey, and Louie seemed satisfied, and walked away as if they were in a law office, dignified with their beaks up.

"We should go wait for Roxas, Naminé and Umeko," Sienna mused aloud, as those three were the ones that had the Gummi Ship. With how long it took them to convince the three ducks, they were probably long done.

"I'll race you," Axel said, getting into position on the floor, standing behind a crack in the pavement.

"No fair!" Sienna complained, although she got into the same stance about two feet away from him, "you have longer legs!"

xxx

"Jack, Jack, open the door!" Sora shouted for at least the seventh time since they had made it to his house, ringing the doorbell multiple times on the way. Jack simply refused to come out- apparently, he was spiraling into some kind of depression, just when Sora thought that Jack was over the whole 'sandy claws' deal.

"_Woof! Rrrrooof!_" Zero barked into the house. Apparently, Zero said something that caused Jack to open the door. Sora and Kairi stared at the ghost dog in bewilderment, but he seemed rather smug about his certain skill.

"You convinced me, Zero," he sighed, "Sally's in here. She's already got the yeast and eggs, she's making a cake. Do you have any-"

Sora handed over the purple-tipped-leafed plant that Kairi had wrestled Zero over, and before Jack could protest, the two of them walked into the house. "Jack, you can't be so upset over not being able to make Christmas. You have your talents and Santa Claus has his," Sora frowned at the skeleton.

Jack Skellington sighed, "I know that, I just wish that we could do something more interesting than Halloween every once and a while, but I'm sorry, Sally, Independence Day just isn't that interesting." He looked over at the living rag doll, who frowned at that statement, but took the herbs from him and broke them into a bowl.

"You could make undead reindeer next Halloween," Kairi suggested, "rotting holly. Then, you can have a little bit of a taste of Christmas in Halloween, but only a little." Sora thought that this was ridiculous, but Jack still beamed at the idea.

"That sounds delightful," he exclaimed, "I could combine the two of them, but only a little bit of Christmas, and still keep it scary while keeping it jolly! And I could make a zombie Sandy Claws robot and everything! Sora, why didn't you travel with her before? She's smart!" This comment made Kairi blush, but Sora grimaced. He didn't travel with her before, because the first time he was trying to save her and the second, she was waiting for him back at Destiny Islands. Still, he let Kairi have this one.

"But it doesn't help that there's this huge hole on my wall that I can't get rid of." Jack shook his head. "I swear, that's my only other problem. Not even concrete'll cover this baby up- the next day, it's there again!"

Sora and Kairi looked at each other, smiling. Eventually, they got Jack to show them where this hole was, and sure enough, it was the keyhole. For the first time on her own, Kairi lifted Destiny Blade and locked up the world. Immediately it seemed the world looked brighter; it was probably one of the first ones in Heartless turmoil.

"Let's go." Sora said, smiling. It seemed Kairi saved the day in Halloweentown.

**Author's Note: Sorry the chapter was kind of long, but I had a lot to get done! And now, the next chapter's going to be pretty huge. Please review- I have to know that I've still got some readers for this fanfiction! See you next chapter!**


	13. Bless Catastrophe

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

BLESS CATASTROPHE

-NOTE-

And here comes chapter thirteen! These last three chapters are going to be very important, but they probably won't be all that long. I've decided that I'm not going to make the sequel until I have at least thirty reviews for this fanfiction, because, like I said, I don't want to make a fanfiction that nobody's going to read. So, if you guys want to see a sequel, consider pushing your friends into reading/reviewing this. x3

I must thank Igor Lollipop, LightsDarkChild and The Cynically Happy Peon, the only three fanfiction'rs that ever reviewed this, even at least once. xD Ah, unrecognized talent. Naw, I'm just kidding, it's not all that good, I just love writing. xD

-/NOTE-

"Cid! _Cid_!" Sora called, rushing into the Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden Restoration Committee's headquarters. It was storming outside, a weather conditino that the keyblade wielders had gotten used to being afraid of. Judging by the boulbus ball of darkness that seemed maybe a day or two away from other worlds that they didn't get a chance to lock up, they had to find Thomas and fast.

"I'm here!" Cid shouted back in his southern drawl, walking up to the group. Everyone had successfully locked up their world, even though Sora and Kairi had to help find ingredients for a cake, Axel and Sienna had to convince three ducks to show them the keyhole, and Roxas, Naminé, and Umeko had to wander throughout a Chinese town before they found the actual keyhole on a _door_. "What is it?" Cid asked, flicking back the toothpick in his mouth so it would shift sides.

"We locked up three worlds, and we don't have much time," Sienna spoke, walking to the front of him. She tended to have an uncanny knack of making things go the way she wanted to, if she got to be the one to do the talking. "we need you to check and see if the path to the Dark Realm that you found is open now."

Although they had first met Thomas in End of the World, which was part of the Dark Realm, he had cut off all roads to Kingdom Hearts, and all roads were cut off to End of the World at all when they returned to Hollow Bastion. Just to return and make it to Kingdom Hearts, Cid found an extra pathway, but they needed to lock three more worlds to get there.

"Hold yer horses, I'm checkin'," Cid explained, as he sat by his large computer with the seven or eight monitors, and clicked away. Everyone looked at the screens flashing like lightning across his computer until he finally opened his radar, and sure enough, a small smile spread across his features. "It's open," he explained to them, "and y'all should be thankin' me, because this trail doesn't lead you to the beginnin' of End of the World."

"It doesn't?" Sora asked, frowning, "Why would we be thanking you about that?"

"I said it doesn't lead ta the _beginnin'_. It'll take ya straight to the fragments of the world, most likely back to yer Destiny Islands," he shook his head, "I hope that world can survive puttin' itself back together a second time."

"Thank you, Cid," Sienna said quickly, and took Roxas's wrist with her right hand and Axel's with her left, and rushed them back outside. Laughing and running with them, Roxas felt compelled to ask her something.

"What's gotten into you?" Roxas asked while he was chuckling. Axel was trying to take control of the chain, fighting against Sienna's speed to practically pull them in a sort of a rope-whip fashion, like little kids used to play.

"It's just," Sienna calmed down her laughing, and smiled back at the two of them, "we're going to go beat Thomas. Everything is finally coming together, you know?" Sienna smiled, and tossed her wavy, platinum hair behind her shoulders, careless of the rain that was getting in it. For once, something was more important to her than her popularity, her looks, her cosmotology. She had a purpose, a reason in this world, and most of all, she had friends that were running and laughing with her.

Maybe that was all she ever needed.

"Try to keep that enthusiasm when we go into the fragments of Destiny Island in End of the World," Sora warned her, and they all stepped inside the Gummi Ship. With Kairi, Sora, Sienna, Roxas, Naminé, Umeko and Axel, it seemed extremely crowded in there, but at the same time, it felt a little empty without Riku.

In fact, getting Riku back seemed to be the first thing on Sora's mind. Still, Sienna gave him a questioning look as they sat down on the couches in the Gummi Ship. Umeko went and took the controls, because she could drive the Gummi Ship better than anyone else in the group. "What do you mean?" Sienna asked.

Sora shrugged, "It probably won't be as bad for you, because you only lived there for a couple of days, but for some people, when they see the fragments of their home dispersed in kind of a junkyard world, it can make them pretty upset. Sometimes even people from destroyed worlds are seen in there, the ones that weren't dumped off in Traverse Town."

Sienna paused, and put her fist to her mouth. "We never looked to see where my parents were," she murmured, "I hope they're okay."

Sora, realizing the damage he had done in that one comment immediately as they took off, patted her on the shoulder, "I wouldn't worry," he explained as calmly as he could, "the first time that Destiny Islands were swallowed up, everyone but one or two people came back alright, and that was just because they probably had a heart attack when the world was swallowed up. I hope none of your relatives have heart problems!"

Sienna frowned. Sora's blind optimism wasn't helping, so she directed her conversation towards Kairi and Naminé, who were discussing what they were going to do with the rest of their summer vacation.

Naminé was smiling, embarrassed, "I never really had a summer vacation, what with just being born a year ago and the Organization using me to take apart Sora's memory. I wouldn't mind spending it with you, Sora and Riku, though!" she said, brightly. Naminé looked over at Sienna, still smiling. For some reason, Sienna took that small gesture as a good sign. Maybe she really wasn't that upset about her and Roxas.

"I think I'll just hang out at the play island and take the summer off," Kairi decided, "you should definitely hang out with Sora, Riku and myself. And Sienna, too, if she wants to," she glanced at Sienna, "we still have a lot to catch up on from the time that we were all away from each other. We were only back at the island for a little less than a week before we were forced to respond to Mickey's letter."

Naminé and Sienna both laughed at this; they were 'forced' to respond to his letter, because that was the day that Destiny Islands was swallowed up. Under any other circumstance, however, they were probably going to go, anyway; they owed a lot to that damn mouse. "When I was gone for that year and my mom saw me again this year, she freaked out so much," Sora laughed, joining in on the conversation. "I should have told her that I was leaving when the world got swallowed up, but I guess she should have expected it."

"She's probably freaking out again," Sienna decided, "my parents are pretty chill about where I go. I can be gone for a couple of weeks at a time and they wouldn't really notice." Sienna shrugged when she got many sad looks directed at her, "It's not that bad, really. It'll be better when I can drive, I'll be going everywhere."

"Take me with you, then," Sora mumbled, "my mom's a freak about my leaving the house, especially after that one year. She got me a cell phone for specific family use, and I have to bring it with me every time I go to the island." He paused. "I left it at home before we left. Oh well." Sora smiled again.

This was nice; it seemed that the only time Sienna ever got to have real, human conversations with the keyblade wielders was at night before they went to bed, and Sora was generally out like a light before seven in the evening. He had the longest conversations with Naminé and Roxas, however, and sometimes Axel, because for some reason those Nobodies had trouble sleeping, almost as bad as Sienna's insomnia.

"I will," Sienna promised, "that's assuming that we live through all this." She paused, not looking up from her own lap. "That Thomas was strong. And he's so manipulative; just being in a battle with him practically made you _want_ to be his puppet."

"That's reassuring," Kairi said humorlessly, but she gave a tired smile. Sienna could see that, despite how far they had gotten, everyone was shaking nervously. She could even feel the Gummi Ship vibrating- she just assumed it was because Umeko was worried about whether or not Cora was okay. Sienna could never understand the want, no, the need to do something for somebody even after they've done all those horrible things, but she looked back at all of her memories and realized that she was going to save Riku, as well.

It really wasn't all that different.

After a couple more minutes of flying (and the occasional 360 when trying to avoid enemy ships), they finally reached what only Sora recognized as part of End of the World- bits and fragments of other worlds were scattered throughout them, but they slowed at what looked like some demented cookie-cutout of the play island- the one that Sienna had ridden to on Kairi's boat to get to the Gummi Ship and escape. Instead of ending in a beautiful ocean, the island ended in a pool of darkness.

The Dark Realm was scarier than she thought.

Sienna frowned when she stepped outside of the Gummi Ship. She had gotten used to the difference in air thickness, altitude and other sensory issues for most of the worlds, but this one caught her completely off-guard. It was like looking back at an old photo of something you barely remember, but it all looked so fake.

"Home sweet home," Umeko muttered in her usual sarcasm, burying her feet into the sand. Umeko had mentioned something about her and Cora living in a city before the world was completely swallowed up, so obviously they weren't used to a beach.

"This is really the last fragment left of Destiny Islands?" Sienna asked, still frowning. It just didn't seem right somehow.

Sora nodded. "Last time, it took closing Kingdom Hearts to get the worlds to reconstruct themselves. This time, since Thomas is the source of the darkness, I think pulling Cora out of the darkness and defeating Thomas, or at the very least, driving him away, should reconstruct the worlds this time."

"I wonder," Kairi said aloud as they stepped a few more pieces onto the island, "how Xehanort's Heartless and Axel's Heartless both keep a human-like shape and how they're both... well, smart. They're practically Nobodies."

"I don't know if that can really be explained," Sora said apologetically, "Cora's been studying the anatomy of a Heartless, so maybe when we get her, you can ask her about how they keep their form. As far as their thinking abilities, I think it has to do with how intelligent they were when they still had hearts."

"So I was intelligent," Axel said smugly and importantly, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked down at his brown-haired friend, "and you weren't!"

Sora frowned- that was true, when he had turned into a Heartless, he neither kept his true form nor had any real intelligence. He recognized his friends when he saw them and refused to fight them, but he couldn't remember much when he slipped into darkness. "It could be experience," he suggested, but only in his defense.

"Hey, who're they?" Sienna asked, noticing something the others didn't. Farther along the coastline, playing by the side of the beach were three children. One of them was a girl with short, purple hair and violet eyes, playing with a seashell. The other two were boys, both of them sparring with wooden swords. The first one was taller with straight black hair and fiery red eyes, and the other one was shorter with spikey and sandy hair and brown eyes. Judging by their smiling, they weren't fighting, but just playing around.

"I don't know," Sora admitted.

"I've seen them a couple of times," Kairi whispered so they wouldn't hear, "they're kids that come to our play island when they aren't at school."

Sora got a closer look at them, and realized that he did recognize them slightly; maybe they had crossed paths before. He couldn't help the smile that tugged on the corners of his lips when he realized who these three reminded him of. "Let's ask them if they know what happened to everyone else in this world."

"'Scuse me," Kairi started, walking up to the three of them. The violet-haired girl stumbled to her feet, backed away and hid behind the taller of the two boys, both of which stayed in front, their feet planted bravely on the ground, "do you know where everyone else from this world as gone?" she asked in the sweetest way she could.

"Are you working for that scary guy?" the violet-haired girl squeaked from behind the black-haired boy. Her eyes were full of childish innocence and worry; they all looked to be about seven or eight years old.

"No, we're not," Kairi assured them, and she showed them Destiny Blade, which she had been clinging to since they took off from Hollow Bastion, "we're here to stop them. I've seen you on the island before, do you recognize me?"

The sandy-haired boy nodded a little bit. "You're Kari!" he said.

Kairi laughed. "_Kai_-ri. Close enough, though. What are your names?"

"I'm Ciel," the spikey, sandy-haired boy responded, putting his fist to his chest importantly, making Kairi giggle. _Man,_ Sienna noted mentally, _Kairi's really good with kids. I wish I was_. The truth was, Sienna was terrible with kids. She never knew what they wanted or how they were going to react to anything. She babysat once and hated it.

"I'm Pavati," the violet girl squeaked once more, but not leaving from behind Ciel. Sora smiled at this as well; it was obvious who Pavati clung to. The tallest boy finally spoke, but he did so quietly and importantly.

"Adam," he said, outstretching his small hand. Kairi took it and shook it, obviously satisfying Adam. She really did have a way with children.

"Can you guys tell us if you know where anyone else from Destiny Islands is?" Kairi asked in a cute voice, "We want to know that everyone is okay. If you don't know, that's alright." She smiled at the girl, Pavati, expecting her to answer.

"It's only us here," she said, and Kairi noticed that her 'r's came out more like 'w's. She must have had some kind of a speech impediment. "but the scary man said that most of them were on a place called 'twaverse town'."

Sora nodded, and whispered to Sienna, "They should all appear on this island when it's time for the worlds to be restored. That's what happened to Kairi; she just appeared on a fragment of sand. It was really cool."

Sienna smiled, that did sound cool. Roxas's hand found Sienna's and entwined his fingers in hers, giving her a reassuring squeeze. Naminé noticed, but much to Sienna's surprise, she looked up at them and smiled with a small nod. Sienna squeezed Roxas's hand back, and smiled at the other Nobody.

Maybe everything would be alright after all.

**Author's Note: I'm sorry this one was so short, the next one may be, as well, but the last one will be relatively long, I'm sure. And then, chapter sixteen will leave us with the epilogue. Again, I'm not going to make the sequel until I have at least thirty reviews. Tough love? xD**

**I have to say, though, even though this fanfiction has been unpopular, I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Thank you so much to those of you who do read and review this, because it means a lot.**


	14. Puppet

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

PUPPET

-NOTE-

This chapter may be very strange, and like I said in the previous chapter, a little short. It was inspired by listening to a crud of a lot of Fair to Midland for an hour straight, and made with a nice little headache. So, if there are any mistakes, don't take them too seriously. xD Please read and review!

Oh, and to answer Igor Lollipop's question, no matter how much you review, it won't make it to thirty, anyway. xDD But I appreciate the thought. xD

-/NOTE-

"I don't see Thomas anywhere," Sienna mentioned halfheartedly; that man had worn so much black that he could have been standing in the shadows close by and she wouldn't have noticed. "Maybe he's already got the job done."

Sora grimaced; he didn't quite enjoy the idea. Just the fact that he could control Heartless and bring them out of anywhere without even having Kingdom Hearts opened yet made him worried; how many Heartless could he control _with_ Kingdom Hearts opened? And most of all, where was...

"Riku?" Kairi breathed. Sora's head snapped over to Kairi, who was looking up at the edge of a large crater in the middle of the island. **Author's Note: Remember in End of the World when you go to the Destiny Islands fragment and you battle Darkside in that bowl-like place? Yeah, that.** She backed up a pace simply at his precense. Riku's clothes were the same, which was odd, because the last time he was taken over by darkness, he had been given ridiculous Heartless clothes.

What scared her the most, however, was that he was standing with such poise and dignity on top of the edge of the crater- his eyes were clouded over with something that could be mistaken as an overdose, and his chin was raised in recognition and superiority. What was going on with him? Had Thomas seriously taken him over completely?

"Riku!" Sora echoed a moment too late. He ran up to the edge of the crater, which didn't give him much of a better view, but Riku's stance did not shift at all. If anything, he almost looked like he would topple over at any moment. The look on his face was still blank and superior, he wasn't even _blinking_.

"Riku, get down!" Kairi called up to her friend. After a moment, when everyone was looking up at Riku, his mouth turned into a half-smile, and his gaze lowered. With not one more of a move, Riku fell forward, falling down into the island. To the group's surprise, he fell straight through the sand, leaving no impression that he had fallen at all. "Wh-what?" Kairi asked, afraid. turning her head. That was _creepy_.

Abruptly, Kairi felt a hot breath on her neck. She spun around, shivering, and backed away, seeing Riku standing only inches from where she was standing a moment ago. He looked more porcelain up close- his eyes looked like glass and his figure breakable; he was clutching Way to Dawn in his left hand, and his long, silver hair was blowing in the wind behind him. The smile was still on his face.

"How did he do that?" Sienna whispered to Roxas nervously, her hands twisting on Origins of Nothing in her nerves. Roxas looked back at her, his mouth dropping slightly from what he just saw.

"I think Thomas is messing with us," Roxas decided lowly, but summoned both Oathkeeper and Oblivion. It was obvious that, whether or not Thomas was just getting inside their heads (or Riku learned some new magic tricks), there was some kind of a threat. Thankfully, that's what the group was here for.

Before Sienna could respond with something witty, Riku pointed his Way to Dawn straight at her, the grin on his face twisting into something malicious and frightening. Instinctively, Sienna backed up a pace or two and clenched Origins of Nothing closer to her body, and finally, Riku, or whoever it was, spoke.

"Took you long enough to make it here," the voice spoke, and they all knew immediately that it wasn't Riku. Thomas's voice echoed his, and Sora's stomach lurched; this seemed so familiar, just like when Xehanort's Heartless had taken him over. He just couldn't believe that Riku wasn't completely in the light yet.

Then again, who was?

"Thomas!" Sienna barked at the puppet, though he didn't move at all. "Release Riku! He didn't do anything to you! If anything, he was helping you!" She bit down on her own lip, afraid of what the Heartless's response would be.

"This isn't _Riku_. Consider this body a replica, created from the darkness itself. Riku is resting safely unconscious next to Kingdom Hearts." He continued after a pause, "The door will open once more. The power of Kingdom Hearts combined with my power to summon Heartless from the depths of one's heart will soon wash away your pathetic worlds, leaving it all to be eclipsed by everlasting dark." The smug look on his face made Sora want to punch him, but even as a replica, something felt wrong about hurting Riku, or someone that looked like him.

"You want your Riku, don't you?" the puppet asked them tauntingly. He raised his hand like an eager schoolboy waiting to answer a question, but instead, a beam of darkness shot up into the sky above him, and the group looked up five feet above them.

Riku lay frozen in the sky as if he was on top of a glass table, his arms hanging limply over the sides. His eyes were closed, but he was breathing, as shallow as it seemed. Sienna could practically feel it, she could feel that he was clinging on to the bit of light in his heart that was keeping him from succumbing to Thomas.

And suddenly, she forgave him for everything. She forgave him for initially trying to sell all of her secrets and weaknesses to Thomas, she forgave him for lying to everyone in the group (even if it was to keep them safe), and she forgave him for being a class A jerk to her. "Things are gonna change now," Sienna whispered, barely loud enough for anyone but herself to hear. "I promise you that."

Before Sienna got a chance to react, she felt a slice at her side, sending her flying three feet backwards. As her vision swam in front of her, she struggled to get up, but Roxas had already made his move on the puppet, joined by Sora, who seemed to hesitate for a moment. Riku had been skilled, but this replica of him must have had some of Thomas's fighting abilities, because with one keyblade, he was accurately blocking _and_ attacking Sora and Roxas.

Kairi tried to run at the replica from behind, but the puppet did a sort of spin attack, which sent both Sora and Roxas flying, and Kairi stumbling back a few feet. By that time, however, Sienna managed to catch the puppet off-guard and lunge at him with Origins of Nothing. Although, it only scraped his arm, as the puppet had disappeared into thin air.

"What?" Sienna finally asked after a moment, but then she saw the horrified looks of her friends staring at her.

In moments, there was a keyblade lodged into her back, and she screamed bloody murder. However, her reaction was correct. Swinging around, the blade still lodged in her back, she took a few hits at the puppet, which was now defenseless and weaponless. In the meantime, Sora ran up to her and sharply pulled the keyblade out of her back. Sienna let out a whimper, but it was nothing in comparison to how bad it was when the keyblade was actually stabbed in there. She was sure that her platinum blond hair would be stained orange from all the blood.

Sora, now clutching the replica of Way to Dawn and his own Ultima Weapon, took the replica from the side. However, the replica had called back another weapon, one that looked oddly like the sword that Riku used to carry a year ago, except it was a strange mixture of the colors red and white, but black darkness was practically eminating from the top of it.

Roxas attempted to get close as well, but he was knocked down by the sword. Catching himself in mid-air, he directed himself back towards the replica. Naminé's Advanced Dancer Nobodies didn't seem to be doing much damage, most of them dissipating the moment they got close to the replica, as if the darkness was too much for them. Axel was helping from afar, however, the only one with a throwing weapon. He would probably end up in the best shape out of all of them.

The moment Roxas dived down with Oathkeeper and Oblivion, Oblivion threateningly close to the puppet's neck, several Morning Star Heartless appeared out of dark portals in the ground, and yanked Roxas down by his feet. The moment they got him down, they lunged at him with spin attacks, so Roxas began to spin with Oathkeeper and Oblivion the opposite direction, calming down their spinning. **Author's Note: I swear I'll be better at explanations like this when I take physics next year. xD**

Sora, however, was taking on the puppet directly, Way to Dawn Replica and Ultima against the white and red replica of Soul Eater, clashing in several echoing blows. Immitating the replica's move, Sienna ran up to him from behind with Origins of Nothing directed straight at his back, aiming for the heart.

Suddenly, the puppet spun around, an unexpected forcefield blocking out everything but himself and Sienna. Before Sienna's keyblade could even make contact with his back, his hand was gripping her neck, squeezing harder and threatening her windpipe with experienced muscles. His face, which a moment ago had been contorted into a furious glare, had twisted itself into a malicious, maybe even psychotic, smile.

Sienna gasped for breath, trying her hardest not to go light-headed for her lack of air. "You'd actually try and kill your friend? You're no different than Riku was when he sold you out to myself and Cora."

"You're wrong," Sienna spat, her voice hoarse and fighting for room in the dimension of sound, "my friend is floating... five feet above your head... you're just a..." Sienna coughed, and gave him a look that would make her mother slap her in the face, "monster."

Still gripping onto her neck, he reached backwards, and threw her down into the sand. Her neck was bruised up and she was gasping for air, her back and left arm still wounded and dripping blood, but were slowly and naturally stitching themselves together. To think, the day before she was just trying to get over the other wounds that Thomas had given her. "Curaga," she muttered, and her wounds stopped bleeding or hurting for that matter.

The forcefield around them must have broken under the puppet's rage (or, Thomas's rage within the puppet), because Sora and Roxas were now taking him on again, and Axel attacking from the side. Kairi had wounded her ankle and couldn't stand, so Sienna rushed over to her. Above the two fighting keyblade wiedlers and the Nobodies that Naminé had summoned was still Riku, lying in the air, floating, but he was _wincing_.

"Curaga," Sienna spoke, pointing Origins of Nothing at Kairi. That was the last of her magic, but it was all she could do because Kairi had used up all of her magic on fire attacks at the puppet, which were her specialty. Kairi inaudibly thanked her with a smile, and rushed up at the replica with Destiny Blade.

Sienna smiled. Even though she was still groggy and dizzy, three keyblade wielders were going after the replica.

Wait. _Three?_

Where was Umeko?

Sienna scanned the area quickly, and smiled at the sight. Umeko, possibly one of the strongest in their group, was helping Ciel, Pavati and Adam to hide in a place where the Heartless wouldn't be able to take their hearts away and, from far away with Star Seeker, she was casting an endless amount of Curas at Sora, Roxas and Kairi- no wonder Roxas or Sora hadn't fallen quite yet.

Sienna blinked, confused. She always thought that Umeko was strictly business and strictly independent. When she realized that Umeko wasn't in the fight, she immediately thought that she went off to find Thomas and Cora. Instead, she was helping the three kids to safety and curing Roxas and Sora. Sienna felt something in her gut wrench; she had definitely judged Umeko by her cover.

Probably what Sora, Riku and Kairi had done when they first met Sienna.

Sienna nodded a thank-you to Umeko, who wasn't even looking at her, and then rushed towards the puppet, who seemed to just about have it. Parting the crowd of Sora, Roxas and Kairi, she slammed her Origins of Nothing into the puppet's stomach. With one final wheeze of breath, he laughed and said, "My puppet may be dead, but it's too late for Riku. His heart has been taken, and this puppet was the last thing keeping him alive."

The puppet died beneath there, and Sienna opened her eyes wide. The real Riku, the one that was floating five feet above their heads, fell quickly, but was caught by a joint effort of Roxas and Sora. They layed him quickly on the sand; he was breathing heavily and scarred up, going into a cold sweat that Sienna could feel when she put her hand to his forehead. Was this what it was like to fall into the darkness?

"No, Riku, don't go..." Kairi muttered, but she just stood at the sidelines, burying her head into Sora's chest. Sora, slightly taken aback by this, wrapped his arms around Kairi. Although it seemed awkward for a moment, he pulled her closer and held her tighter, sobbing along with her. Roxas looked down at Riku, his head hanging.

"This can't be it," Sienna said, her voice distressed. She knelt down next to Riku and propped him up by taking his shoulders in her hands, and shook him slightly. "Riku, Riku, it's Sienna!" She felt a tear running down her cheek, "Riku, open your _eyes_, dammit!" She sobbed again, "Riku..."

She could feel him shift with her hands, but it was only his struggling to reach out for that last bit of light that he had left in his heart. All of the things that Riku had worked so hard for, Thomas wrenched away from him. "Riku, it's your _friend_! Wake up!"

Still no significant movement.

In one quick and desperate move, Sienna flung her head onto his chest, her face being soaked with blood, but suddenly, the noise around her stopped. Kairi and Sora's sobs were muted, the shallow air of End of the World had ended, and the childrens' excited and nervous shouts could not be heard. Confused and curious, Sienna opened her eyes and took her head off of Riku's chest, but there was _nothing_.

All that surrounded them was black. At first, Sienna thought that she was blind, but then she looked to where she had been resting on Riku's chest. Riku was not bleeding, his wounds were gone. In fact, his sea green eyes were wide open, staring up at the black sky above them. He was even smiling a little bit.

"Glad you could join me," Riku stated.

Sienna raised her eyebrow, "Where are we?" She could not contain her happiness in her face that Riku was okay, but that disappeared quickly- something told her that she wasn't with everybody anymore. She remembered this from early on in her adventures with Sora, Kairi and Riku- she had slipped and fallen, dreaming of fighting on platforms. That was when she got Origins of Nothing.

Was she dreaming again?

But when had she fallen asleep?

"The darkness," Riku answered sullenly. There was no hint of a joke or an insult in his voice, but rather, he spoke to Riku like he had always spoke to Sora or Kairi; as if he knew her forever. "You went in to try and pull me out."

Sienna stood up, and looked around. Riku stayed lying down, lounging with his hands behind his back. "Where's the light?" Sienna asked nervously. She could see no flicker of anything but black, but refused to move from where she was standing, in fear that she would lose Riku to the darkness.

"It's gone," Riku said, and Sienna looked back on his face. He was smiling lightly as if in a daze, but she could tell he wasn't, because his eyes were shining with something wet. When he blinked, he was blinking back a tear. "Thomas took it away."

"No, it's not!" Sienna decided and was very persistent about it, "Your light's around here somewhere, we just have to _look_ for it! Come on, get up!" Sienna commanded him, wiping away some of his blood that had rubbed off on her cheek.

"Why do you care?" Riku asked with no real heat, just curiosity. "I sold your secrets to Cora and Thomas. I thought that by sacrificing someone I barely knew, I could save my best friends. Now look at me- lost in the darkness, and the only one doing a damn thing about it is the one I tried to sell out."

Sienna shook her head. "Riku, everything's forgiven. I know that you tried to stop Thomas early on, but he forced you. Stop thinking about that- we have to go find your light!" She stretched out a hand, waiting for him to take it and pull himself up so they could go and find it.

"Sienna," Riku said loudly over all of her commands, and Sienna put her arm back to her sides, and knelt down next to Riku, who had not moved. "Sienna," he repeated, and tried to choke something back. "I'm sorry."

Sienna screwed up her face, trying to bite back the tears she knew were coming. "You have to leave here," Riku commanded her with all the force he could muster in his voice. He propped himself up on his elbows to look at Sienna face-to-face. "Get out now, or you'll be swallowed up forever."

Sienna shook her head, as stubborn as a little girl at a pony ride. "I'm not leaving unless you come with me." She stretched her hand out again, and did one last sweep along the blackness to try and find his light. Still nothing.

Then, she looked down at her own hand, brighter somehow amongst everything else. Was her hand _glowing_? Nervously, and without moving her hand, she forced her gaze up to Riku's, who was smiling. "It's a deal." He reached out and grabbed her hand, and the last thing that Sienna remembered was the bright light amongst them.

xxx

"Sienna... wake up." Sienna groaned- she knew that voice. In fact, she knew it very well. Whose was it? Sienna made no attempt to figure out; she was happy, lost in her own darkness of the back of her eyelids. She didn't want to be woken up- it was still summer. She didn't have to get up early for anything.

"Come on, Sienna, Riku has to thank you properly," a girl's voice came, this one laughing and nervous. She recognized this one, too, and Riku... Riku, who she had just saved from the darkness. Who she had been travelling with, with Sora, Kairi, Naminé, Umeko and Axel... and _Roxas_. _That_ was the first voice.

"No I don't!" a laughing male's voice came from the crowd. It _was_ Riku. Despite her wants to lie on the Destiny Island beach forever, she forced her eyes open. There were blurs surrounding her, one a brown one, followed by two yellow ones, a red one, another yellow one, and another red one. Finally, on her right end, a silver one. She blinked again and the faces came into view.

Riku was standing above her, smiling like an idiot along with everyone else. There was not a scar or a scrape to be found.

"Did we do it?" Sienna whispered, her voice still not totally back to her.

"We got Riku back," Roxas said, finding her hand and squeezing it reassuringly, "but now we have to go get Thomas."

"And save Cora," Umeko reminded them. Riku nodded fervently.

Sienna laughed and rubbed her head with her free hand, "I'm ready when you are."

**Author's Note: Okay, not quite as short as I anticipated, but the next chapter is the finale! And don't forget, thirty reviews or I'm not making a sequel. D: And it would suck if I couldn't make a sequel, because I've got some amazing ideas. D;**


	15. I See the Stars, They're In your Eyes

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

I SEE THE STARS, THEY'RE IN YOUR EYES

-NOTE-

Here we are, the last chapter! Minus the upcoming epilogue, of course.

I'm really happy with how this fanfiction worked out. After all, I thought that I would quit halfway through because of my lack of reviewers, but then I realized that it's okay, because I had fun writing. :3 But I'm still not doing the sequel until I get at least thirty reviews. D;

On a bright note, this chapter should be relatively long! Or average-sized. We'll see how it goes.

Yes, I type the notes before the chapter. xD

Disclaimer:

Riku: Now that I'm out of the darkness, I think I'll do the disclaimer. :3

Sienna: But... _I_ wanted to do the disclaimer.

Riku: You had your chance last time, though!

Roxas: sigh... I'll do it. Lesser doesn't own Kingdom Hearts.

Sienna: ...She doesn't? /

-/NOTE-

**Warning: I've been listening to Mindless Self Indulgence as an inspiration for Thomas. So, expect a real effed up villain. xD**

"He's around here somewhere, I'll help you fight him," Riku decided immediately, although Sora and the others gave him wary, half-hearted stares. He had just been yanked out of the darkness for the second time, and injured by all of them, even though they were attacking the replica puppet. For some reason, its wounds had appeared on Riku.

"No way," Sora decided immediately, letting Ultima and the copy of Way to Dawn appear in both of his hands.

"Where did you get that?" Riku asked curiously. Riku summoned his and, sure enough, he still had Way to Dawn safely in his hand. It turned out that Sora had taken the puppet's Way to Dawn while they were fighting (straight from Sienna's back, where it had been stabbed into her), but Sora did not answer him, as they heard lighting strike.

"I'll take that as a bad sign." Umeko decided, clutching Star Seeker.

Without hesitating any longer, Umeko and Sora practically at each other's necks for leadership of the group, they walked into the large ditch of darkness ahead of them. Sora half-expected to see Darkside popping up out of nowhere, so he kept Ultima and Replica Way to Dawn close to him, but the moment they stepped in, they saw nothing but swirling purple, red and black darkness beneath them.

However, looking forward, just as Sora expected, the ditch was not as small as it seemed. Rather, it stretched far beyond their line of sight, and farther away was some odd strip of white road, winding up to the beautiful, large and ornate doors of Kingdom Hearts.

"We're here," Riku said sullenly, "I remember it."

"Probably more from the inside," Sora said as lighthearted as he could, but his facial expression did not relax in any of his grimness. "I can fly in this darknesss because Peter Pan sprinkled me a long time ago, but you all can't, so I'll stay down with you."

"You can... fly." Kairi said, her mouth slanted in confusion.

"Right," Sora laughed, smiling, "I never told you."

"This is cute," Umeko said lamely, breaking up the 'staring contest' Kairi and Sora seemed to be having (which must have also been a blushing contest), and began, "but you might want to look over by Kingdom Hearts."

Sora cocked an eyebrow and looked that way, Naminé being the next to notice, followed by about everybody else at once. There was some odd bubble of darkness building up at the platform which held the doors, surrounding everything. "He must be guarding against everyone so his usage of Cora won't be interrupted," Umeko decided importantly.

"Let's go, before it gets too big," Riku urged them, taking control of the group. He seemed intent on showing everybody that he was sorry for his mistake and that he was to be trusted, especially Sienna, even though she had already given him her forgiveness.

As they approached the dark bubble, which seemed to take forever, all of them realized that nobody could see through it. "I can't see a thing," Kairi shook her head; if she couldn't see inside of it, then nobody could, because she had perfect vision. Naminé shook her head as well; apparently, neither could she.

"Let's bust it down," Axel decided coolly, his two chakrams flaming up and appearing in his hands.

"Wait," Roxas told him, and Axel's head perked to the side, a little disappointed as he was eager to knock down the bubble of darkness. His hand was halfway through the blackness surrounding Kingdom Hearts. "I can make it through."

Axel stuck his hand through the darkness. "Me, too. Maybe it's just an illusion."

Next, Sora tried. But, no, his hand could not make it through. The rest of them tried as well, but only Sienna and Naminé's could make it through. "Maybe only Nobodies can go through the barrier," Naminé suggested, but she seemed as troubled as the rest of them, seeing Sienna's hand poking through.

"What about me?" Sienna asked nervously.

"Maybe it's because you can pull the Nobodies out of people," Riku said thoughtfully, walking up to her, "maybe it gives you some of their specialties, like the ability to withstand a lot of darkness."

"That makes sense," Sora said, beaming as he came to an epiphany (or rather, Riku's epiphany). "She was able to go into the darkness and save you, where the rest of us would have probably drowned in it." He then went into 'Sora Command Mode', "Okay, you guys go in and break the barrier, and then the rest of us will come in and help you save the eighth Princess," Sora shook his head; he wasn't used to calling her Cora quite yet.

"Got it," Roxas said, sticking his chest out to his 'twin' (as he was told to tell everyone that asked him who he was) to try and be assertive. He stepped through, followed by Axel, Naminé, and quickly after, Sienna.

Standing in the center was Thomas, recognizable only because of his red streaked hair, the rest of his black clothing fitting in very well with the darkness. He was facing the doors to Kingdom Hearts, which seemed to be the only glowing objects in the barrier, except of course, for Cora, who was lying in the air in a similar fashion as Riku had been, except her heart was floating a foot above her chest.

"She looks like she's been through hell," Sienna muttered, not quite understanding why she disliked Cora so much. If she looked back at it, Cora never really did any permanent damage to any member of the group, and she was never even a real bitch if she looked back. In fact, Sienna scolded herself for not seeing the signs; it seemed like she should have been under the control of another for a long time.

"She has," Thomas responded, and Sienna clammed up, she was originally unsure if Thomas could hear her from so far away.

"Thomas," Axel shouted, "let go of her!"

"Axel," Roxas whispered, careful of Thomas's not hearing, "we're just here to break the barrier, then we can leave the fighting to Riku and Sora. They're stronger than the rest of us, anyway."

"Yes, listen to your friend," Thomas laughed an odd laughter, and Roxas recoiled; this dude must have had the hearing of some kind of a hunting dog, because he was so quiet that Axel could barely hear him.

Naminé didn't say a word, however, but a keyblade of odd sorts appeared in her right hand. It looked almost like Destiny Blade, except the flowers were all purple, and the rest of the blade was an odd mixture of black and orange, in a way that made it seem like Halloween was coming early. "I thought you said you couldn't weild a keyblade because Kairi couldn't until after you were born." Roxas commented.

"I didn't think so, either," Naminé smiled.

"Funny how you're even trying," Thomas's laughing calmed now, "after Cora here put you all through hell and high water searching for something that was long gone in the darkness all along." He laughed again, "And it was _her_!"

"Whether or not we want Cora back, which isn't your business," Sienna began with her hands shaking, as Thomas obviously intimidated her quite a bit, "we're not going to let you open up Kingdom Hearts. You bring enough Heartless out of the darkness on your own as it is." Sienna paused; she always learned that Sora and his group used to think that because Kingdom Hearts was unlocked, the Heartless were appearing, but there were so many other sources for them; even the simple presence of darkness in someone's heart can pull out Heartless.

Thomas twisted around, and began to walk towards Sienna. Sienna, who would have backed up before her practice, instead gripped Origins of Nothing tighter, ready to attack if necessary. Thomas had no scars or injuries from the fight that they had gotten in earlier, and Sienna was jealous; her arms were probably scarred up to extinction.

For the first time, Sienna noticed how graceful and cat-like Thomas actually was, crossing the threshold in a few steps only, his eyes lazy but staring directly into Sienna's, even when his heigh perfectly matched his Nobody counterpart's, Axel's. "And you're willing to risk your life to save someone that would kill you with the snap of my fingers?"

And at that moment, Thomas snapped, the sound echoing around them. Cora cried out in anger and discomfort from where she lay five feet above the ground, her heart wrenching where it stood. A huge flash, the heart, now rid of all impurities, pointed directly at Kingdom Hearts, much like when Sora would lock up a world. The door creaked open, and the first thing that they saw pooling out was darkness.

"Naminé, call your Nobodies to try and break the barrier!" Sienna called to Naminé frantically, and without even asking, Naminé did so, at least twelve Advanced Dancers crawling out of the nothingness of another dimension, and she gave them their commands.

"Cora's heart is weak without me," Thomas said, threatening her by walking closer up to her, challenging her height and leaving her no room to breathe. **Author's Note: He got all up in her grillz, dawg. xD I'm sorry, not the time or place.** "She thought it was Umeko that made her stronger, she thought it was the King that was making her stronger. The only strength she ever had came from the darkness. It came from _me_." His smile twisted into something cynical before he turned on his heel and smiled at the opening doors of Kingdom Hearts, "You're wasting your time here."

"You afraid to fight us?" Axel asked his Heartless, spinning his chakrams excitedly in his hands. Sienna had to envy Axel; her platinum blond hair was plastered to the sides of her head with sweat from her nerves, but Axel was playing it cool the entire time.

"Axel, you should be afraid of me."

Before Axel could even open his mouth, Thomas's dark chakrams appeared, but they barely rested in his hands as he spun around to face Roxas, Axel, Sienna and Naminé (whose Nobodies were currently working on destroying the barrier), and spun towards them. Axel didn't dodge them as easily as Roxas and Naminé did, as he wasn't quite used to his own weapons being used against him. Sienna hadn't expected it at all, and was flung backwards.

Thankfully, she had taken a page out of Sora's book, and caught herself half way in the air, ready to lunge in for an aerial attack. One of Axel's chakrams had met one of Thomas's halfway, and they stopped each other, flinging back. As Thomas caught his, Sienna went down on him with Origins of Nothing, blocking the one that he threw up to her. She had learned quite a bit with the first battle she had with him; he wasn't getting away that easily.

She managed to get a few hits in on Thomas, Axel's chakrams even managing to slice his sides every once in a while. It was remarkable to think that this man was a Heartless with the way that he thought, and Sienna was eagerly awaiting Cora's explanation for all this. The only thing that really gave it away that he wasn't a Heartless was his crazy amount of emotions (even though Roxas and Naminé proved that fact to be false), and that his eyes flashed yellow when he raged with emotion, similar to a Shadow's.

Finally, after Thomas's tornado of hits, he managed to stab one of his chakrams into his gut while fending off Naminé's keyblade (which she was surprisingly skilled with, probably from being around so many keyblade wielders), and Sienna fell to the ground, coughing. She began to gasp as she saw a few spots of blood come out onto the black ground where she had been coughing.

"Sienna!" Roxas shouted, as he already was casting Curas from far away, ran up to her, "Sienna, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Sienna told him, waving him off. She put her hand in front of her mouth to cough, blood spotting on her hands. "It'll be okay. Curaga," she muttered, and she immediately felt better, "we've got to get up there and get Thomas."

"Right," Roxas said, blushing nervously, realizing that he had been distracted. After one more quick glance at Sienna, he rushed back up to Thomas.

**Meanwhile...**

"What's taking them so long?" Sora asked anxiously, circling Kairi, Riku and Umeko like a vulture, but his gaze stayed nervous on his shoes, and his fingers trembled fiercely in his pockets. They could hear or see nothing outside of the barrier, but he was making Kairi nervous, what with his inability to stay still.

"Maybe the barrier's just tough," Kairi spewed out, taking Sora by the shoulders and keeping him put where he stood. She could do nothing about his shaking hands, but maybe the adrenaline would keep his skills up to par.

"Or maybe Thomas is putting up a fight," Sora retorted.

"He probably is," Riku said aimlessly, and Sora frowned. He sort of expected Riku to disagree, but even with another trip to the darkness, he didn't expect Riku to lose his duh-isn't-it-obvious attitude. At least he was always truthful; Kairi tended to sugarcoat everything, but he knew it was all to protect them.

"Cora..." Umeko whispered to herself, and then shook her head as if trying to shake off something horrible. "I just want my best friend back."

"I wouldn't worry," Riku said, putting his hand on Umeko's shoulder. It wasn't quite the hug that she probably needed, but it was something. "Our Sienna's gotten so much stronger. And with Roxas, Axel and Naminé? Cora's going to be fine."

Umeko, with her independence and assertiveness, could have moved away. She felt she should have moved away. Instead, glad for the contact and the comfort, she leaned into her new friend's touch. "I hope so."

**Meanwhile...**

Cora was breathing heavier now, gripping the invisible edge of whatever she was lying against in the air. She was squinting and shouting out, phantom pains destroying her from the inside out as she reached out for her heart, but could never quite reach it. "Stop this, Thomas!" Axel commanded his Heartless.

"Speaking of 'stop this'," Thomas began, his voice not changed at all from the rigorous fighting he was engaged in, his attention turned towards Naminé, her keyblade disappeared as she began to command her Nobodies to work harder on destroying the barrier. In moments, there was a crack appearing in the blackness that they had stepped in.

"Leave her alone!" Roxas shouted, and ran forwards. However, as he reached Thomas, Thomas threw a chakram at his head, knocking him back at least fifteen feet, sliding on the ground, rising the white dust of the trail to Kingdom Hearts that they had been walking on. Sienna was torn between where to go, but was knocked down to where Roxas was only moments after, but what came next would always haunt her.

Thomas hopped behind Naminé, his eyes flashing yellow like a cat's under the light, and raised his right hand with his chakram, stabbing it into Naminé. Naminé cried out, a noise that Sienna would never want to hear again in her life, but she looked backwards, her body fading into tiny fragments of darkness.

As if she was saying words meant only for Umeko's ears, she mouthed, "Take care of him." Ending her fight, Naminé faded back into the darkness.

"_Naminé_!" Roxas cried out, reaching for something not there anymore. Sienna lye, stiff as a bored, not believing what she was seeing; Naminé was gone. Roxas sobbed behind her and put his head on Sienna's shoulder, but she could not move. Axel, whose leg was broken had just stumbled up, and he stared dumbly at where Naminé was standing; he couldn't believe it, either.

Out of all of the people that could have gone, it was Naminé, the one who never, ever in her life as a Nobody, deserved it.

But Thomas had been too late.

Even as Naminé's Nobodies disappeared, the crack in the barrier grew, and it shattered before them. Sora, who had been pacing in front of it, stood surprised, but at the mere sight of Thomas, let his Ultima and Replica of Way to Dawn appear. Obviously, he noted something missing. "What happened to Naminé?"

Roxas shook his head, his hands clenched. All of the pain in his body had numbed up, but finally, he let himself let go. "I'm gonna _kill you!_" Roxas threatened, using Sienna's shoulder to help him stand up, and rushing towards Thomas.

This kill, however, only made Thomas stronger. Not only did he bear no wounds, but the second Roxas reached him, he teleported through a portal of darkness over to Sora, whose chakram clashed with his keyblade in moments. Now was time for the real fight, they could tell. Sora and Riku together were a team nobody wanted to mess with.

In a hurricane of three keyblades versus two chakrams, Riku and Sora went on a head-to-head battle between him, and for once, Thomas looked distressed. He was skilled at long-distance combat, but when it came to closer than four feet away, his weapons were useless, except to stab people with, which didn't hurt half as bad as a keyblade to the gut would.

Of course, Naminé would beg to differ.

"Roxas," Sienna began, running up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. Roxas took her hand off of it and kissed it gently, gripping it a little tigher than usual. "I'm so sorry about Naminé... she didn't..."

"It was bound to happen," Roxas said, his voice oddly melancholy. Sienna's gut wrenched; whether or not he cared about Sienna more, he still had feelings for Naminé. This was probably extremely hard on him. "the Organization put her through so much. Then I asked you to pull her out of Kairi... she wasn't ready."

Suddenly, they looked over at Cora, who had stopped screaming. Umeko had used a very interesting aerial jump to get up and reach Cora, bringing her down. Her heart descended with her as well, and reached the inside of her body. Thomas must have noticed as well, because he shouted something that almost sounded like a hiss, and completely abandoned his fight with Riku and Sora, heading towards Umeko.

"Leave her alone!" Sienna shouted, tired of not being helpful.

She ran up to Thomas with full force, her keyblade ready to stab. Finally, she made contact with his stomach, and he cried out. Before anything else, Thomas dropped his one chakram and jutted his hand out towards Sienna, the entire thing engulfed in shadows. It pierced through her skin, right where her heart would be.

"_Sienna!_"

Sienna could not hear them. With a pain that none of them could comprehend, she fell to the ground. Her heart was in Thomas's hands, and as he smiled that cynical smile of his, falling onto his own knees next to her, he laughed as it disappeared in his hands. "I'm too weak..." he coughed. "Time for plan B."

In moments, Thomas fell through the darkness that they were standing on. Roxas was the first to run up to Sienna. He couldn't take this, there was no way he could; he couldn't lose Naminé _and_ Sienna. "Sienna, Sienna, wake up!" Roxas commanded her, kneeling next to her body, breathing heavily and sweating. She was transitioning; Sienna was becoming a Heartless; she was falling into darkness.

"Roxas... don't." Riku warned him.

"I can go in!" Roxas shouted to Riku, though he didn't take his eyes off of Sienna. "I can go in and save her like she did with you. Like Kairi did with Sora!"

Riku shook his head. "My heart wasn't stolen. Sora's was, but Kairi had his heart inside of her." He looked away, trying not to show some kind of emotion that might throw off his facade of perfect equilibrium, "There's no way."

"Sienna..." he brought his attention back to her. She opened her eyes, but they were clouded. She was hanging onto something, but nothing that would keep her conscious in that world. Still, like Sienna had learned to do for as long as she was traveling with everybody, she was hanging on.

"R-Roxas..." she stuttered, her voice was low and barely audible. "I love you."

"I... I love you, too, Sienna." Roxas took her trembling hand and held it close to his heart. Sienna gripped it like it was her last anchor to that world, and used the last of her energy to reach up and kiss him gently.

For a moment, Sienna was still clinging on. Then finally, more words came from her mouth. "Roxas... I'll see you on the other side." Her grip loosened on Roxas's, and soon, her hand was gone. The rest of her body disappeared, leaving Roxas reaching out into the air, waiting for her to come back.

Footsteps.

Roxas's head jerked to the side as he heard this, and saw a figure that he didn't quite recognize. It was that of a girl, but she was hidden behind the shadows. The only thing that peeked through the darkness besides her outline were two eyes, shifting between an advanced hazel and yellow. Roxas knew exactly who it was.

The Heartless smiled at them, and gripped her shadow of a keyblade.

Sora, who was standing behind the kneeling Roxas, got the picture as well. He nodded, and pointed out Ultima. The Heartless walked up to the doors of Kingdom Hearts, walking through the crack in them, joining the thousands of other Heartless surrounding her. Roxas was the one to stand up and say his last good-bye as he pushed the door to Kingdom Hearts shut, helped by the pull of the one Heartless on their side.

With the Heartless locking the other side of Kingdom Hearts, and Ultima doing the job on the outside, a click and a shine of the light locked the door, hopefully, this time for good. Roxas's head hung low, but he then looked at his feet.

Cora, who had just woken up, squinted. "Concrete," she murmured, was what she and Umeko were standing on. Roxas remembered faintly Umeko mentioning that they had come from Twilight Town.

Underneath Sora, Riku and Kairi's feet was the sand that they knew all too well as that of Destiny Island.

Roxas looked over at Axel, who shook his head. "I'll visit you guys," he promised, but Roxas could see a tear in his eye. That was right; Axel and Sienna had become fast friends on their mission together that day. Had that been a full day, that they sealed up the three worlds to come here, and only lose Naminé and Sienna to the darkness?

Roxas nodded, and walked up to Sora. Without another word, he let himself disappear into Sora, both of their bodies glimmering with light. At that moment, Sora felt everything Roxas did; he felt his love for Sienna, his despair from her fading, his deep kinship for Naminé, but mostly his loss of faith in the world.

"See ya around," Axel stated to them, saluting them in a fashion that showed that he was definitely 'still Axel', and disappearing into a portal behind him. As Umeko and Cora drifted off into Twilight Town, Umeko shouted at them.

"We'll meet again!" she promised.

"I'm sorry for trying to kill you!" Cora shouted out, and Sora, Riku and Kairi could hear the two friends' laughter together, reunited in the light at last. Hopefully, never again would they have to worry about getting sucked into keyblade battles.

"Guys," Sora stated, giving Kairi and Riku a warm smile, "let's go home."

The sand drifted off of the edge of End of the World, and for the first time, Riku and Sora experienced the magic of the world reuniting itself. It looked like stars were falling amongst them, trees and leaves growing at their very touch to the ground. They drifted away, leaving behind the hardships of that journey. Kingdom Hearts was sealed, and the eighth Princess was now saved from the darkness.

And the Destiny Islands were reuniting in a beautiful fireworks show of light. Sora, Riku and Kairi all smiled and looked at each other, thinking the same exact thing.

_Sienna would have loved this._

**Author's Note: I'm sorry if that was a little sad for you, but I've got the epilogue coming up soon! xD I think I was even crying a little bit as I wrote this... agh, I get too into my fictional characters and such. ; ;**


	16. Epilogue

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

EPILOGUE

-NOTE-

Wow, a crap of a lot happened last chapter, so I hope that this will finish things up alright for everybody. :3 For the millionth time as a reminder, unless I get thirty views, no sequel. Dx

But thank you so much to my three reviewers, Igor Lollipop of course because she's my best friend ever, LightsDarkChild for being my first ever reviewer, and TheCynicallyHappyPeon for kicking LightsDarkChild to get her to catch up on her reading. xD You guys made me happy, thank you. :3

-/NOTE-

Sora stared up at the sky from the beach on the main island, his thoughts a blend of fear and readiness, eager to take on anything that would come his way. After all, Thomas was still out there, he had a 'plan B', and he had to be ready to leave the place at any time. He just didn't know if he ever would be ready.

He was standing in front of Sienna's house, and remembered that time about a month ago that Sienna had _ordered_ them to take her with them to the Gummi Ship. She was telling Kairi not to ruin her outfit back then, and at the end of their journey, she practically sacrificed herself to at the very least wound Thomas enough so that he wouldn't succeed in Plan A.

She had grown so much.

Axel had visited once that time, he said that he could feel some sort of otherworldly plotting, but Axel often said things like that just to freak them out, so Sora couldn't be sure of how serious he really was. Of course, Axel was always odd around him; he was never quite sure if Axel was speaking to Sora or Roxas when he talked.

They had also gotten a postcard from Umeko and Cora. Both of them were doing perfectly, and Cora was keeping up with her study of the anatomy of the Heartless. Umeko was mostly just celebrating the fact that she wasn't alone anymore, after a year of being mentally separated from Cora, and two weeks of being physically gone. They had made friends with Roxas, Hayner, Olette and Pence as well, all of them still holding strong after all that time, but none of them knowing about Cora or Umeko's past.

Sora, Kairi and Riku were doing alright as usual, holding out, at least. Sometimes, Sora would go and stare off the shoreline just to remember his three adventures (the three that he could remember, at least), but sometimes he would twitch at the very flicker of a purple or red that wasn't supposed to be in the scenery before him, sure that another storm sent to destroy Destiny Islands would come back for him.

"Out here again?" Riku's voice came. Sora jerked his head back to his old friend, whose hands were in his pockets and his eyes were to the sky. Riku had been through hell the whole time; initially, he had tried to sacrifice Sienna to save Sora and Kairi. He realized his mistake, however, but Thomas kept him under his grip, eventually making him succumb to the darkness within that he had been fighting off.

And it was Sienna who talked him out of the darkness.

"How did you know I've been out here?" Sora asked, turning his head back towards the sky. His spiky brown hair blew in the breeze, but not all that much, at least not in comparison to Riku's newly cut silver hair.

Riku chuckled. "I've been going here every day since we got back."

Sora raised his eyebrows. You learn something new every day. "Do you think Sienna's out there somewhere?" he asked his friend in a light voice, careful of jinxing anything or getting his hopes up for no reason.

"_I_ think she is," the voice of a girl cut the air behind them. Neither Riku nor Sora even had to look back as Kairi stepped up in between them, none of them taking their eyes off the sky in front of them. "Her Heartless did help us seal Kingdom Hearts, after all." Kairi smiled, closing her eyes and feeling the wind in her face.

"I think you're right," Sora said, smiling. Roxas, somewhere deep inside of him, was thinking the same exact thing.

xxx

She could feel the ground beneath her. She couldfeel the cold air against her back, but she couldn't _feel_ anything. How could the first world that she could ever remember herself being in be so cruel in that way? She tested her toes, her fingers, her facial muscles. Everything was functioning. Who was she?

She remembered, as she felt herself floating in the darkness, she had been _called_ there.

"You're here," a low voice came. Why was this voice so familiar? A cloak was draped over him, the hood completely concealing his face. Standing behind him were eleven others, all of them wearing the same black cloaks, except the one speaking to her was wearing a white one. What made him so special?

The girl pushed herself up, getting used to gravity that she never remembered dealing with before in her life.

"Our new number XIII, Anixens. The Bringer of Light."

**Author's Note: If you don't know who Anixens is, I'll kill you. xD**

**All I can say is, please review! And keep a look out for a sequel, if one is ever made. xD**


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